To Take A Stand
by ShadowLightning29
Summary: Harry's inheritance comes to him on his 17 birthday but soon after a mysterious boy lands in his bedroom, who turns out to be his mate. With Voldemort on the rise and enemies lurking around every corner, can Harry protect what means the most to him? SLASH
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: Hello to all reading this story. This is my first actual yaoi story and my first time posting something that actually took effort to write on fanfiction, as a warning just in case. Also, this is a YAOI story. For those of you who do not know what yaoi is that means slash, shounen-ai, gay love, boyXboy pairings etc. I can't really make it any clearer than that so for those who do not like yaoi and think it is wrong LEAVE! NOW! you have been warned. i will accept any reviews you give and healthy PRODUCTIVE criticism on this is welcome. actually pretty much anything you want to say to me is welcome unless it's a flame. do not flame me. you are choosing to read this of your own volition, no one is forcing you to read it. should you choose to flame me anyway you are also warned that if you do i will read it, copy and paste it, send it to all my friends, and we will all have a good laugh at your expense about how it is sad that you have nothing better to do than insult something you chose to read of your own free will. for the record, when you do that it makes you seem like an idiot. so NO flames. they will be mocked and made fun of with terrible wit that everyone finds funny all the same. once again in case you forgot with all my pathetic rambing THIS IS A YAOI STORY! GAY LOVE, BOYXBOY PAIRINGS, SHOUNEN-AI, SLASH! DON'T LIKE DON'T READ!**

**sorry about that. on to the disclaimer thing that everyone hates but does anyway to avoid losing all their money and going into bankruptcy!**

**Disclaimer: *sighs* well, you all know how it works. Roses are red, violets are blue, me no own, you no sue.**

**We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves stronger. The amount of work is the same-random quote i felt like putting up.**

Chapter 1- 

The rain fell down onto the hard pavement of the road, millions of billions of thousands of tiny crystal droplets splashing into the sleek hardened black river. Hot, white lightning flashed and streaked across the clouded night sky. The brief glowing light showed a thin, pale, ghost-like figure, standing alone in the wild grass by the side of the road, for a second before the faint scene was once more plunged into darkness.

The figure was a young boy, looking to be only a little older than maybe sixteen years of age. His face was tilted towards the sky, exposing a thin, delicate, white neck. Messy dark purple hair, streaked throughout with tarnished silver, clung wetly to the small teen's porcelain face and his arms were spread out widely by his sides, as though he was giving himself to the sky. A baggy black sweatshirt hung from his thin frame, soaking wet and no longer preventing any chill from creeping in.

He stood there like that for an immeasurable amount of time, just letting the fierce storm batter his body, unaware of all the things happening around him. Unaware of events that would soon change his life forever. The boy only let himself be aware of the screaming wind, the rustling of the trees, the pitter patter of rain against surface.

Dimly, he was slightly, barely, aware that someone was calling his name.

There was the feel of something shaking and the teen snapped back into himself when he realized it was him and that it was a pair of familiar, delicate hands that were gripping his shoulders and jerking him back and forth.

"Kiri! Kiri! Kiri, look at me! _Please_! Kiri!" a distressed voice called desperately. Recognizing it as Hermione's, Kiri opened his eyes. Deep and soulful midnight purple met warm and concerned brown and then he was being choked in a tight, suffocating hug from his friend, whose stature was shorter than his own height of 5"10 by an inch.

"Mione'!" No response. He tried again, this time with a little more force. "Mione'!" Still no response from her. "_Hermione_!" The young brunette released her hold slightly at his loud shout and stepped back, smiling sheepishly.

"Did I hug you too tight again?"

Kiri gave her a ghost of a smile. "Yeah. But I guess you can't help it." he answered.

Hermione laughed and took him by the hand, leading the barely younger boy towards the car her parents had just recently taught her to drive. "No, I really couldn't. But we'll talk about that later at home. Mum won't mind if you stay the night again, it's not like you stay at the dojo that often anyways. She was actually a bit worried."

"Sorry. I went for a walk a few hours ago," Kiri began to explain, sliding into the passenger seat of the black camri, "and I suppose I lost track of time. Then, when the rain started I felt so nice and helped me think. So I stayed out."

Upon hearing this Hermione shot a worried glance at Kiri and started the car, pushing her dampened hair away from her eyes. "Kiri...."

"Yes?" came the softly spoken response.

"You weren't gone for just a few hours," the curly haired brunette told him. She paused for a moment, ignoring the questioning and confused look the one seated beside her had, and took a deep breathe before continuing on.

"You've been gone all _day_. When the storm started almost _six_ hours ago I got worried. Mum and Dad did too. We all know about your penchant for taking walks in _any _type of weather," here Hermione gave Kiri a pointed look, "when you aren't with us, that's been happening lately. Eventually we got tired of waiting for you to come around. So we started searching around, asking people who were crazy enough to be out in this rain if they had seen a small teenage boy about sixteen years old-"

"I'm sixteen and seven months!" Kiri protested, still a bit sore about being younger than the seventeen year old witch, not to mention how he was almost as small.

"_Any_way, some thought they might have seen you till' we mentioned your hair. Apparently all they could see was a large black hood. I knew it was you right away because every time you go out you insist on wearing the ratty old thing." Kiri glared at his friend for the jab towards his sweatshirt and huddled more deeply inside it.

"So, I went in the direction they said you had gone in, and Mum and Dad went home to shower and get something warm for you when we finally got there. But I couldn't find you! As a result I kept on driving, but I never expected you to be in the middle of nowhere and outside the city limits! Kiri, do you even realize how much danger you could have been in?!" Hermione scolded, turning to glare at the upset boy.

"Mione' I didn't even realize I had walked so far. I don't remember being out for so long either." Kiri told her in a quiet voice, worried and disconcerted by this revelation. How could he have lost so much time again?! And to have gone so far in this weather, to have stayed out for so long, even for him it was unusual!

Hermione felt her eyes widen and her glare softened sympathetically. She reached over and pulled the cold, trembling Kiri into a brief hug. "Was it the pull again, do you think? It's been getting worse ever since you turned sixteen in December. You haven't been the same since then, always walking in the same direction and I catch you staring off into nothing. I know that I haven't been around a lot because of and since Hogwarts but Mum's been noticing it too, and even Dad, oblivious as he is, has cottoned on." Kiri nodded his head and Hermione felt the motion against her collarbone, where the teen's head was buried.

"I think so." The answer was a bit muffled so Kiri pulled out of the embrace. "It felt like the pull does, now that I think about it, but....." Here Kiri paused, biting his lower lip in indecision. _'Should I tell her how much stronger this feels? I don't want to worry her anymore than she already does. And...these last few years she's seemed so tired.' _

"But what? Kiri?" Said person was broken out of his thoughts and he politely asked the girl beside him to repeat her question. Hermione sighed softly, sadly. "See this is what I was talking about. You just...fade away. I asked you, but what? You never finished what you were going to say."

Kiri thought, hard, for a few precious seconds before answering his friend. "I'll tell you when we get back home. Here, in a car, isn't the appropriate place for this conversation."

Hermione scrutinized Kiri, her deep brown eyes sharp and alert for any hint of avoidance or deception. Maybe he was just saying that to get out of having to answer her. She could tell from the tone Kiri spoke in that whatever it was was important, but also that he was reluctant to say anything about it to her. However, when she didn't find anything resembling trickery she knew that he would keep his promise to tell her later. Satisfied with this for now, Hermione put the vehicle into drive and started speeding away, back to her home where four mugs of piping hot tea sat waiting.

* * *

Order of the Phoenix Headquarters

"Albus surely you don't believe that Harry is better off staying with those terrible muggles?!" Sirius Black protested in horror, looking slightly ill. "Every time we see him all the poor kid is is skin and bones! I don't believe for a minute that they're feeding him properly and Molly and Remus told me what they did in his second year! Starving my godson! Locking him in his damn room, if you can even call it that, putting bars on the fucking window!"

"Sirius, it would be best if you would calm down so that we may speak rationally and maturely about this matter. I realize that Harry isn't in the best of hands with the Dursleys, but I would never allow Harry to stay with them I thought he could be in any type of danger." Dumbledore attempted to pacify the fiercely angered ex-convict but he didn't have any success in his endeavor. How surprising.

"Well you may not have considered this Albus Dumbledore but Death Eaters and Voldemort aren't the only things that can harm my godson and spells aren't either! There's more ways to abuse someone, not just physically, and the way the Dursleys treat Harry, from what I've seen and heard of them, is appalling!"

"Harry's just a child! Mature as fucking hell and stronger than probably even some of the most hardcore Aurors, but still just a kid. For Merlin's sake, Harry hasn't even finished school yet! I'm telling you Albus, he may be turning seventeen in a few days but that doesn't mean you can treat him as though he's a weapon to be used and then discarded! He is not and he never will be!" Sirius spat furiously before turning on his heel and storming away.

Dumbledore immediately started to curse the werewolf and Weasley matriarch inwardly once the man was gone, though on the outside he appeared only a little miffed. This could completely desecrate his entire plan! Sirius wasn't even supposed to be free, he was supposed to stay in Azkaban! When the news of a breakout had found its way to his ears he had _thought_ it would be a golden opportunity to bind Harry all the tighter to him.

After all, the boy would be devastated when he found out about his parents betrayal. But the damned Black heir had proven himself innocent! To Harry and the entire Wizarding World as well!

Harry had been ecstatic at the offer Sirius had made, for the boy to live with him. _'Thankfully,'_ Dumbledore thought with smug satisfaction, _'I put a stop to that nonsense. All it took was a few well-placed words about the blood wards. Of course, Sirius put up a good fight but in the end he conceded. He'd do whatever it took to keep his precious godson safe.'_

However, ever since the end of Harry's third year, after the dog animagus had become free, Sirius had slowly gotten closer to they boy. There had still been plenty of distance between them though, until fifth year when Sirius had almost died during the Ministry of Magic fiasco. The whelp had started to distance himself, instead, from him, Albus Dumbledore!, and had grown determinedly closer to his godfather over the past two years, till' they'd come to regard each other as father and son.

And now Harry was in his seventh and final year of Hogwarts. This was his _last_ chance to get the 'Golden Boy' to submit to his command. The elderly wizard knew that if he didn't succeed he would never get another opportunity. He would need to do whatever it took to bend Harry to his will this year. If he failed...he would never obtain one of the things he most desired, Harry's-

"Albus!"

The sharp cry of his name, more like a one-word reprimand than anything else, drew the old man's attention towards and irate werewolf, standing in the kitchen doorway.

"Remus." Dumbledore greeted evenly.

"Albus what did you say to Sirius?! He's bloody furious and smashing any and everything he can get his hands on right now! All he would tell me when I asked him what was wrong was that if I bloody well wanted to know than I should go ask you!" Remus snapped in annoyance.

He was always in a foul mood these days, ever since Tonks had broken up with him a few weeks after sixth year had ended, saying that even though she had thought she could handle it, it was to hard for her to be with the lycanthrope. It had broken his heart, though he was much better than he had been at first.

"I said nothing Remus. I merely informed Sirius that young Harry would not be able to come and stay with him for the rest of the summer and that the boy's remaining time would be spent with the Dursleys." Albus replied, hoping he wouldn't have to deal with another pissed off guardian. Lupin had also managed to find a way to integrate himself into Harry's life, becoming much like an dearly beloved uncle; even, perhaps, another surrogate father.

The lycanthrope stared at Dumbledore in shock. And stared. And stared. And stared. And when he was done staring at the batty old man he immediately began to protest the decision. "What?! Why not?!? Harry will be seventeen soon, he won't need to stay at his relatives any longer! There is absolutely no reason for him to be cooped up for his entire summer vacation with them!"

Dumbledore sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Remus I am very well aware that Harry will be of age soon but it is my hope that he will agree to stay with his remaining family until the start of school. I believe that if Harry just tried he would be able to make amends with them before he left. If he does not wish to I will, of course, allow him to come here but I feel confident that the boy will be very receptive to my proposal," he finished saying, a hint of smugness in his tone.

"And if he refuses to stay any longer than he has to? Will you try to convince him to stay or will you allow the decision to go uncontested, whatever the answer may be?!" Remus questioned. He knew that Dumbledore could be very manipulative if it meant getting what he wanted.

Remus had known this for years and was always careful about what he revealed to the headmaster, listening to his inner wolf whenever it cautioned him about something in regards to the old man.

"I would, obviously I should think, let Harry make his own decisions. After all, he will be of age. But if he does refuse I would have him stay a few extra days, maybe a week at the most. The blood wards would not dissolve instantly after his birthday and I feel that it would be safer if he stayed until hey really did dissipate." Dumbledore replied to Remus' inquiry with confidence.

"If _that_ was the plan all along then why did you tell Sirius that the child wouldn't be coming to stay with him?! This entire mess could have been avoided!" Remus exploded, fighting the strong urge to bang his head on the wall. '_Honestly what was Albus thinking? The man may have defeated Grindlewald all those years ago but things have changed dramatically! It seems like he really is going batty with old age,'_ the brunette werewolf thought.

"**Good riddance! The sooner the old coot gets out of the way the sooner I can be free to run with ****the moon the way I'm meant to!"**

Remus heard the agitated shout in his head and groaned silently. _'Shut up Ansgar!'_ There was some muted grumbling but nothing more and Remus preferred it that way, bringing his attention back to the here and now.

"I told Sirius that," Albus was saying, "because if young Harry does choose to not reconnect with his relations I assumed the boy would want to spend some time at the Burrow with the Weasleys; so I arranged for him to stay there for the remainder of summer holiday." Dumbledore adjusted the half moon glasses on his crooked.

"Understandable as it is that Mr. Black wants to be as close as possible to his godson and would like to have as much time as possible with the boy, especially since that fiasco at the Ministry," _'Where the mutt should have died!' _"he has been manipulating all of young Harry's available free time. Harry needs to be around children that are his own age and not spend so much time with Sirius." _'He needs to stop listening to everything the blasted dog is telling him and start listening to me again!' _"I believe that Sirius should not pressure the boy so much to spend his days with him. It is unfair to Harry and the others who would like to have a chance to be around him."

The lycanthrope was in shock...again. He had known that Dumbledore did not entirely approve of Harry and Sirius' father/son relationship- Molly didn't really either but refrained from saying anything- as it had resulted in some rather interesting changes in the boy once he understood that he could do what he wanted to his body without the man freaking out on him i.e. his multiple piercings and tattoos, but to have come up with such a flimsy, see-through excuse as this just to keep the cub _away_ from Sirius....

Well, that showed more than just a hint of discomfort, it seemed to Remus.

"I can't believe what you're saying Albus! Have you any idea how ridiculous you sound?! Harry has been spending plenty of time with his friends and it isn't as often as you are making it out to be that Harry and Sirius go traipsing off together!"

"Now Remus, you and I both know-" Dumbledore started.

"I know nothing Albus! This is ridiculous and I am going to go firecall the Weasleys right now and tell them that there is a change in your plans and that Harry will be staying with Padfoot as he normally has for the past four years but that if at anytime they wish to visit than they are welcome." And having said his piece Remus stomped from the kitchen to do just that, leaving one Albus Dumbledore standing alone in the room, gaping like a fish.

* * *

Hermione Granger's House 11:40 pm.

The drive back home wasn't awkward, as Kiri had expected it to be because of his little mishap. Instead it was filled with mindless and pointless gabbing, both teens trying to catch up as much as they could during the three hour long car drive. Hermione told him all about her exciting year at Hogwarts and how happy she was to be home and Kiri, about how boring it was here without her and how he had been faring since his birthday.

Somewhere around the first hour mark, however, Kiri ended up drifting off the sleep. Hermione, seeing this, reached out and quietly turned off the radio, allowing silence to reign supreme.

From then on, not one more word was spoken. The brunette didn't want to wake Kiri up from the first peaceful sleep he had had in what had to be years, so she allowed her thoughts to run rampant across the planes of her mind. Images of her years at Hogwarts flashed behind her eyelids and she sighed. She really did miss her adopted little brother; even if the adoption wasn't official, when she was at school. But since Kiri wasn't a wizard he couldn't attend with her.

_'It's a shame,'_ Hermione thought wistfully, _'I get the feeling that Kiri and Harry would have gotten along really well.'_ She smiled mischievously as another thought suddenly hit her. _'Or maybe better than well now that I put some thought into it. After all they're both gay and they're both attractive...things happen....'_

Hermione soon abandoned this train of thought and latched onto another one, giving each a brief acknowledgment before casting it easily away. She continued this process for the next two hours until she arrived at her small home, pulling in slowly to the garage.

The door that led into the house banged open loudly the instant the camri turned off and Hermione sprang out of the car silently to shush her father, who was pale with worry and had evidently seen and heard the camri coming.

"Dad shhhh," Hermione commanded, bringing a tan finger to her lips, "Kiri is sleeping restfully, finally. Please don't wake him up. I don't know if he'll fall back into such a good rest."

Jeff's blue eyes widened in shock and pleasure. "Of course not baby. I didn't notice." he said reassuring his child that he would let his tiny son stay in the land of dreams.

The young witch breathed out a sigh of relief at this and then strode with a light step over to the passenger's side of the black vehicle. She opened the car door, unbuckled Kiri's seatbelt, then motioned her father over to her side. Jeff understood what his daughter wanted and started to move towards her.

"Dad," came a hushed whisper once the man was close enough that he could hear what was being said without anyone having to yell, "I know that Kiri is only an inch taller than me and," here, the girl paused, casting a critical eye over the frail sleeping body, "you know, he probably weighs less than I do too, but, I'm not that strong and I can't carry him upstairs to his bed."

Jeff, knowing what Hermione was trying to tell him to do, gently scooped Kiri up into his arms and almost dropped him in surprise when they heard some low grumbling. Both father and daughter expelled a breathe of relief when the purple haired boy didn't wake up, merely shifting his position a bit to become more comfortable in Jeff's arms.

Jeff waited a few more moments until he was positive that Kiri was still asleep before he crept into the house and up the stairs, Hermione following him as quietly as she possibly could. Soon the pair had entered a small, comfortable room that had been specially done for Kiri after he had been staying with them for a few months after they'd first found him.

A double bed, covered neatly with a thick black duvet, sat in the far right corner of the space by an average sized window that overlooked the garden in the backyard. The walls were a soft cream color and painted on black dragons were drawn elegantly on the opposite side of the wall next to the bed. A dark cherry wood dresser stood up against the wall on the left side of the stained black door, with a large bookcase next to it.

Carefully, gently, Hermione's father transferred Kiri from his arms to the bed. In a few more minutes the man had stripped the teen down to his boxers and tugged on a pair of soft cotton pajama pants. His job finished, Jeff placed a fatherly kiss on the Kiri's forehead before departing from the room, leaving Hermione alone in the silent space.

The brunette was grateful for the quiet chance to examine her "little brother's" body. Kiri was so...soft...most of the time and he was always wearing such baggy clothing that she often forgot all about the tattoos that covered his body.

Sighing, Hermione ran loving hand over the first one he had ever gotten. It was a bracelet of life like peach colored rose petals placed on his left wrist. When he had first chosen it she had laughed and asked why he wanted something so girly forever engraved on his body. Kiri had never answered and she had been left wondering for a long time. She was still wondering, in fact.

The second tattoo Kiri had gotten had surprised her. Where first he had gotten something so feminine he now had something fiercer: a pair of coiling dragons. The larger, and seemingly more dangerous, of the two had scales of obsidian jet and was wrapped protectively, almost adoringly, around the smaller dragon, one with amythest scales that somehow seemed softer. Though the beasts appeared to be mates, it looked as though the more minute of the pair was struggling to dislodge the other. And even though the dragons seemed mated, and the amythest one softer and smaller, they were both clearly males, obvious by the way they were drawn and the appearance of their faces.

Hermione thought that this depiction had to have hurt rather more than any other he had gotten, except maybe the faint, nonsensical-but beautiful nonetheless-light silver design covering much of his back. _'After all,'_ she thought with a wince, _'that needle carved an incredibly detailed depiction around his right thigh. It had to hurt!'_

And still, there were more designs inked onto the pale ivory body. Starting at his bicep and ending one inch before the petals was a huge, winding, Celtic knot tattoo done in emerald green and the same color black as the scales of the one dragon. On his right mid-upper arm there was a band of glowing white lightning intertwined with crimson red flames.

Covering over much of the design on his back was a depiction of a Japanese style bird in dark, striking, midnight blue that spanned across the width of his shoulders, through the curve between his shoulder blades and down to his mid-back. Certain kanji were interspersed throughout his designs and on his lower back three specific kanji were strategically placed: on the left, a kanji meaning "strength", on the right, one meaning "fragility", and in the middle there was a kanji meaning "flight."

Hermione ran a featherlight touch over each and every marking Kiri had with infinite care. Sighing, she stood up and pulled the black duvet over the younger boy and up to his chin.

Wanting to stay so badly but knowing that she honestly needed her sleep, Hermione mimicked her father's previous actions and placed a sweet, sisterly kiss on Kiri's forehead before exiting the bedroom and entering her own. She changed swiftly and switched off the light, climbing into the bed and settling deep underneath the pastel blue covers. The last thought she had before falling asleep was _'We'll talk in the morning Kiri.'

* * *

__**Damn. i was really nervous about posting this but i'm glad i did. please review!!!! i like reviews. they make me smile and work harder on my story. XD.**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Authors Note: Okay my little sister was reading chapter one of my story and she found something that made me feel the need to tell you all that despite what may have been Implied Dumbledore is not a pedophile, just in case any of you were thinking that. i didn't realize that the way i phrased some things could be taken out of context until yuki(my lil sis) and naomi(my best friend) both read the first chpater and said "oh my god dumbles is going to molest harry!' he's not. if no one actually thought that then that jsut shows that i have really perverted people surrounding me all the time. damn. **

**anyway here's chapter 2. not as good as i'd like it to be but when is someone ever really satisfied with their work. also, i will try to update on a regular basis but no promises. i do have a life outside of fanfiction...sort of.  
**

**Disclaimer: if you all don't know how this fucking thing works by now you ought to be shot. ;) just kidding. well here we go. i do not own Harry Potter. at all. never have never will. i had a dream once that i did but it was just a dream...so i still don't own it. i do however, claim rights to any OC that is present in this story.  
**

**I'd tell you to go to hell but I work there and really don't want to see you every day.-yeah! another random quote!  
**

Chapter 2

Bright sunlight filtered through the tightly drawn curtains of Harry's room in Number 4, Privet Drive and the almost but-not-quite-yet seventeen year old boy moaned when it shone directly on his face, turning his back to the window in hope that he would be able to fall back to sleep. After a few minutes of pointlessly lying there, though, he gave up and opened vibrant emerald green eyes. Instantly Harry regretted doing so. The glare from the morning sun was too bold and it stung his eyes horribly. "FUCK!!" The raven swore, bringing his hands up to shield his face immediately. He tentatively peeked out from behind his fingers a few seconds later only to swear again and retreat.

Eventually his sight adjusted to the brightness and Harry could see properly again, but even so, the young wizard made no move to get up right away, choosing instead to wait until his horribly screechy aunt came to get him like she always did every morning. And sure enough, there was soon a loud rap on his door followed by a shrill "Boy! Get up this instant and come make us breakfast!" a few minutes later. When Harry made no response to the screams the knocking started up again, along with the demands to wake up and cook.

"Yes Aunt Petunia," The raven finally responded, tired of the constant shrieking outside the doorway. There was no answer to his own nor were any other demands made as of yet, simply the sound of footsteps striding away from his train wreck of a room.

Harry waited for a moment, half-expecting the thin, horse like harpy to come back but she didn't. With an audible exhale of relief he let his glamour drop. It didn't matter how strong-physically, mentally, and magically- he was, keeping up a constant glamour took a lot of conscious effort on his part to do, mostly because his magic, for some reason, didn't like retaining the charm which made the task in and of itself exponentially harder. After all, if his magic didn't like the spell then he had to fight to keep it up all the time.

"This," Harry muttered in annoyance, "is one of the many reasons I hate staying in this hell-hole." He put on a fakely wise voice. "Harry, perhaps you should wear a glamour,' 'Harry we don't want to scare your relatives with your rather outlandish appearance,' 'Harry it would be best for you if you continued to stay with the Family from Hell!' Yeah, it was a bloody fucking fantastic idea to listen to bloody Dumbledore!" Harry snarled sarcastically, dragging one tan hand through his messy hair.

Contrary to what the Dursleys saw and believed, Harry was not some scrawny, pale, underfed little ijit like the glamour made him appear to be. Sirius, Remus, and his friends could see that he didn't get enough to sustain him a the Dursleys and had continuously sent him a constant stream of food. Because of the fact that he had started eating healthily and well all the time and because of all the Quidditch practice and manual labor he did outside he was no longer short, now reaching a height of almost 6"4; his frame had filled out with muscle, his skin turning from a sickly pale to a healthy glowing tan.

Harry had also decided to grow out his hair in the vain hopes that it would get tamer as it got longer. It didn't. However, the raven never cut it short again as he found that he liked it long, allowing the still messy locks to grow down to his mid-back; he, for the most part, kept it pulled back in a low ponytail, letting his thick, long bangs cover incandescent green eyes.

The thing that was probably the biggest reason he was wearing his glamour, the boy mused as he pulled on the every present black leather choker, a silver crescent moon resting comfortably at the hollow of his throat, was probably the tattoos and few piercings he had gotten over the years. He wasn't stupid or blind, he knew that he had been perceived as 'Gryffindor's Golden Boy' and to be honest it had bothered him greatly.

In an act of rebellion that had seemed like a good idea at the time he was doing it, he had gotten a tattoo of a sword. The wicked looking blade was a deep sinister black with dark green vines crawling upwards and over the shining silver hilt and set in the middle of the pommel was a large amythest stone. Above and to the left of the sword was the kanji for 'warrior' in black ink. The entire thing had taken a good few hours and it had hurt like hell but he, admittedly, was happy with the design that he now had near his right collarbone.

When everyone else had found out about what he had done he'd expected them to freak out, even prepared himself for the inevitable looks of disappointment that were sure to come, and it had surprised him when a lot of them had accepted it calmly and with little fuss. Of course, on the other end of the spectrum, there was much yelling, berating, and thoughts of Harry being corrupted by 'that no good Sirius Black!' Ron was envious and impressed by the deadly looking tattoo and told him that the next time he did something so cool to take him along. Hermione had done nothing but stare intently until the loud mouthed red head had jokingly remarked that she was trying to come up with a spell to remove it. Upon hearing that she had smiled and shook her head, commenting that the tattoo was actually quite nice and if he wanted to get another one she disadvised the area around his stomach, leaving both boys in a shocked daze.

And he had gotten others. Four others, in fact.

One had been a Celtic knot tatto0 done in dark red around his lower left arm. Another had been, despite his friend's advice, centered around his pierced lower stomach. It was a beautiful lily, inked on in midnight black that had had crimson and tarnished silver leaves surrounding it, and vines of the same color that extended outwards. Harry's fourth was a simple one, nothing more than a silver kanji that meant 'freedom', sketched right below his fifth and last tattoo, a pair of intricately drawn blood red and jet black wings. His piercings, on the other hand, instead of all being done over a period of three years, were done over a period of three months. At the end of it he had come out with two square obsidian studs in his left ear, one amythest one in his right, and an obsidian stud in his left nostril.

Harry curiously examined himself in the mirror-piercings, tattoos, and all-tugging lightly on a long strand of shaggy raven hair. He had always been told that he looked exactly like his, James, did. Now, he wanted to see if the changes he'd undergone since his third year made any difference to that statement. After a few minutes of intense staring Harry concluded that, although he still bore a similarity to his father and even to his mother, he looked more like his own person at this point in his young life.

He was ripped from his thoughts by a furiously loud banging on the door. "BOY!" roared Uncle Vernon, "YOUR AUNT TOLD YOU TO COME DOWN HERER NEAR TWENTY MINUTES AGO AND WHILE YOU ARE UNDER MY ROOF YOU WILL NOT SHOW SUCH DISRESPECT TOWARDS US! WE HAVE FED AND CLOTHED YOU AND YO HAVE BEEN NOTHING BUT A BURDEN! I WOULD HAVE KICKED YOU OUT LONG AGO BUT PETUNIA INSISTED WE KEEP SO IF YOU THINK THAT I WILL LET YOU LIVE WITH US WITHOUT DOING ANY WORK AT ALL TO COMPENSATE FOR HAVING TO HOUSE A SICK, FREAKISH....." On and on the man wen, railing Harry for everything under the sun until he finally ran out of breath on the outside of the room. "You had better be down soon freak, or I'll beat you till' your blue and throw you back in your cupboard." With that threat having been said, Vernon stormed away, still furious and blotchy faced.

Harry, not for one _second _believing that his uncle wouldn't gothrough with his threat, quickly pulled on a pair of cut off shorts and a light gray t-shirt, barely remembering in time throw up the glamour he had let go, and hurried down the stairs. Down in the kitchen, Vernon, Petunia, and Dudley sat waiting.

"Well get to it boy! Dudders is hungry and he's a growing boy. He needs his food," Petunia cooed, petting the blonde boy's fat head. Vernon said nothing, simply stared at him like he was the most disgusting thing to ever walk this earth.

The raven subtly rolled emerald green eyes. _'What schmucks,'_ he thought, _'I'm not their fucking house elf,'_ but all he said to them was, "Yes Aunt Petunia," before sauntering over to the fridge and pulling out the things he needed for the Dursleys breakfast like eggs, bacon, and milk. While he was doing this Dudley was waddling around looking like an over sized pink whale and constantly whining to his parents about how hungry he was and how Harry was so lazy, why couldn't they just get rid of him. He was babied and told that 'Don't worry Diddydunkins that menace will be gone soon.' Of course, all this made Harry want to gag and laugh; he couldn't they'd probably go psychotic on his ass but it was sure as hell a tempting idea.

The next half-hour was spent being taunted, mocked, and ridiculed while Harry cooked quietly. A few years ago he might have flipped out at his 'family' for their cruel and unnecessary words but Severus had been teaching him meditation and Occlumency, the art of shielding one's mind, to help protect his thoughts from certain nosy old men and, as a result, he was calmer and had a much better control over his sometimes volatile emotions. So, even though he _wanted_ to snap his relatives necks in half like twigs out of the blinding fury coursing through his veins, he didn't. Harry merely stayed calm and collected, not allowing the three bitches in the kitchen to have the satisfaction of seeing him lose his temper.....or, what was left of it anyway.

When the raven haired boy finished cooking and serving his relatives he was given a long list of chores to do, 'by tonight,' came the instruction from his aunt. Harry didn't say anything, simply turning on his heel after a meager breakfast, consisting of a piece of dry toast, and bounding up the steps to his room. The glamour dropped once again and Harry sighed in heartfelt relief. "Fucking hell," he muttered, "I hate glamour charms." Emerald green eyes glanced at the ink covered chore list clutched in his hand. Most of the work was inside the house, things like dusting the mantle, mopping the floors, polishing the silver; things that he could easily get done with wandless magic. "Might as well do that now. I can work in the garden later."

Closing his eyes, Harry breathed deeply a few times and retreated inside of himself, directing his consciousness towards the very center of his being. It felt a bit like free falling and soon Harry was landing in a crouched position on the balls of his feet in a patch of lush green grass. A vast forest spanned for hundreds of miles, the willow trees swaying gently in the light crisp breeze. The sky shone a brilliant robin's egg blue and not a cloud was in sight. This was the place where every wizard's innate magic lied: their inner mind.

The inner mind was different in the way it appeared for each witch or wizard, based on their personality and what setting was best suited to hold their magic. Every witch or wizard could access magic through their wands but few could gain access without the aid of a wand and even fewer could do so without the need for an incantation. This was because to first enable yourself to have the ability to use power wandlessly you needed to one, have a vast amount of power, and two, have a very strong will, so that when you retreated into yourself, to your mind, you had enough strength to pull your consciousness back to reality and not be tempted to remain forever like many who had made the effort to access their core magic were. Of course, there was bit more to it than that, but let's not get into it right now.

Somewhere in the middle of the many willow trees sat a large, pulsing chest covered and locked with thick metal chains. A low thrum reached Harry's ears as he approached the object, and as he got closer he could faintly make out the iridescent lavender glow of his core magic. Harry crouched down in front of the chest and extended a slim hand, sweeping the pads of his fingertips carefully across one of the chains and breathing in a deep lungful of cool clear air when he felt a thread of his calming power flow into him. The raven projected his intent of getting all housework done instead of using a spell, since he didn't really need them anymore, and a subtle steady pulse began, finishing what would have taken a nonmagical person hours to finish in a few measly seconds.

Glad that the cleaning and polishing had gotten done, Harry once again brushed his fingertips against the same chain, eyes dimming slightly as he felt most of his pure magic ebb back into the chest. Harry hated having to relock his magic after every use of it but until he was sure he could control the wandless and immense power he couldn't let if flow freely through him. It might lash out accidentally or, and these had only happened recently in the seven months, if had another one of his magical spikes someone could get hurt or caught in the backlash. "And besides that," Harry muttered, bringing himself back to reality, "If it doesn't stay locked away Dumbledore might pick up on just how strong I am and we all know that that would just be a catastrophe waiting to happen." His eyes, now slightly rimmed in lavender, slowly blinked open and he lifted himself off of the bed, taking the stairs two at a time and then gliding out the front door.

He never noticed that when he had come back to the 'land of the living', so to speak, he had forgotten to reapply his glamour nor did he notice the other neighbors gaping at the dark and gorgeous teen working in the Dursleys yard-mowing grass, trimming hedges, watering the plants. He only realized his glamour had never been pulled back up when he was on knees, weeding the flower beds, and Vernon Dursley stormed up to him, viciously grabbing his long hair in a meaty fist. Harry reacted automatically, his hand shooting out and twisting Uncle Vernon's wrist behind his back and sighing in relief when the wild raven locks were released out of pain. _'Well,'_ he thought dryly, _'that's one benefit to having spent the last two and a half years studying martial arts in the Room of Requirement.'_

"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY YARD BOY?!" came the furious roar. Harry, in surprise, let go of the man and gaped in shock at the purpling face.

"What do you mean what am I doing in the yard? I'm doing the chores I was assigned to finish by tonight!" the raven haired boy shouted, thankful none of the neighbors were paying attention. _'Fucking hell, what in Merlin's bloody name has got __him__ so riled up?"_

"Oh ho, so the _freak_ hired you to do _his_ work did he?! Well I won't have it! That little shit is going to carry his own weight around this place and I'll not have you doing it for him." Realization flooded into Harry as the fact that his glamour wasn't up and his uncle didn't recognize him like this dawned on him. "Now, get off of my property before I call the police to come have you arrested for trespassing!" The large man's chest heaved from all the yelling he had done and beady black eyes held a malicious sense of victory in them. Harry's own eyes flashed lavender, then green, then lavender again and a dangerous spark shone in them as he advanced forward on his 'uncle', finally having had enough.

"So you believe that Harry Potter is a lazy little shit that can't get anything done, am I right? That he mooches off of you and is the lowest scum of scum, never doing anything to help and always being an ungrateful brat, correct?" Harry's voice was low and deadly as he continued his advance on the large and pudgy man. He took one step forward and Vernon took one step back. The boy did, after all, have a good few inches on him and was in obviously good shape. Actually, thought the pig nervously, inching away again, Good shape was an understatement. While he was not buff like a bodybuilder was and was more so lean than anything else, one could clearly see the muscles rippling underneath his skin and with that eerily calm look the teen had on it seemed as though he could happily tear Vernon in half without breaking a sweat.

Stopping five inches away from the head of the Dursley household, Harry asked again, menacing voice barely above a whisper, "Correct?"

Gathering up his courage (more like trying to soothe his wounded pride) Vernon puffed up his chest and nodded vigorously. "Of course I think he's an ungrateful brat! We give him clothes, food, a place to stay! And all the lazy freak does is ruin our nice _normal_ lives! The little shit is nothing but a worthless piece of shit!"

The raven gave a cold, chilling smile before lifting up his thick black bangs to reveal a lightning bolt shaped scar, which Vernon had not noticed due to the fact that Harry's long hair was down and covering a good portion of his forehead and even his eyes. With that frightening grin still in place the boy-who-lived lifted up his hand towards his uncle, a deadly ball of his core magic swirling around the appendage. "Now, you are going to listen very carefully Uncle because I do not wish to repeat myself. Until the day that I finally leave this house, you and your family are not to speak to me, look at me, order me around, or anything else that would require me to have any contact with you. I will leave you alone and stay in my room for the rest of my time here and you will leave me alone. Understood?" Vernon gave a quick trembling nod, watching as those terrifying eyes flickered back to emerald green. "Good. I'm going to go back inside and you are going to explain these new rules to Aunt Petunia and Dudley." Harry lowered his hand and walked inside calmly, taking the steps two at a time so that he could get to his room as fast as possible. He didn't want to be around for the impending explosion.

Two days after the confrontation and Harry still had not come out of his hidey hole, immensely glad for bladder and hygiene charms.

* * *

Hot sunlight filtered into the stuffy room, making the clogged space seem a little more welcoming. Dudley's broken computer, now fixed and running thanks to Harry's magical repairs, sat in the corner of the room, taking up half of the small desk's space and hidden under a glamour to _look _broken so that the Dursleys didn't feel inclined to take it away. He gingerly crossed the messy floor, which was so littered with used quills, parchments, and ink bottles that it was hard to find a safe place to step. The window he trying to get to was closed and no air was circulating throughout, causing the space to feel congested. Considering it had been nailed shut recently it was an impressive feat that Harry managed to muscle it open and let the fresh wind blow through.

Harry tilted his head to feel the breeze blow against his face and his glance caught the carpet. The mess having grown too big for even him to ignore, he took the initiative and stooped low to the floor. Nimble hands made quick work of the strewn around items on the ground, tossing or alternately levitating the objects back onto the desk or into his trunk. Finding that cleaning was a good distraction from his wayward thoughts the raven haired boy continued tidying up: first cleaning Hedwig's cage, then wiping up the dust, making the bed, setting his trunk back in order. It was all very therapeutic. And actually, he thought in retrospect, so was summer homework.

A few minutes later, when the time had come for dinner, Harry stopped working on his potions essay and transfigured one of Dudley's old broken toys wandlessly into a large turkey sandwich. No way was he going down into the kitchen just yet. The Dursleys were probably still pissed that they had lost their least favorite slave. As he sat quietly on the edge of the small bed the feelings and thoughts he had not yet allowed himself the time to think about filtered unbidden into his mind. He had come into his room in Privet Drive after the fight with his uncle to find two hovering owls fluttering inside by the open window. One of them, the one Harry recognized as Sirius' owl Sin, had seen the gaping door and taken the opportunity to fly out of his room and downstairs-successfully scaring the hell out of the Dursley family. It had been at that point when Vernon had stormed up and nailed the one window he had closed.

Not really caring to acknowledge his uncle's existence Harry had very simply caught Sin by the wing and pushed the whale of a man out, shutting the door in his face. Politely, of course. The other owl had been one he hadn't recognized as either Hermione's, who surprisingly hadn't bothered him about homework yet, nor Ron's, who was being a great big prat. Ignoring the unfamiliar owl for now, Harry had turned back to Sin and taken the letter in his talons. The contents and knowledge of it had simultaneously angered him and filled him with indignation. Remembering this the raven haired boy felt compelled to see it again and set aside the half eaten sandwich before digging them out of his trunk with a triumphant cry, smoothing both letters out to read again. Sirius' came first, and then Dumbledore's was behind it.

_Dear Harry,_

_I can't say much about what's going on at Headquarters. You want to know why? Nothing's going on!! We've been stuck here cleaning at the insistence of Dumbledork, who thinks that we should make this place habitual enough for people to live in! Cleaning! It's a bloody nightmare! Out of all the things that needed to be done for the Order and instead he has us all doing the least important thing on the list. Why, you might ask me? Well I bloody well don' t know. I think Remmy was right-he has gone batty with old age. Dumbledore I mean, not Remus. Maybe all those lemon drops he eats are laced with something...hmmm, the idea has merit._

_But anyway, Pup, how are you? Are the pigs from hell treating you okay? They'd better be or I'm going to come over to Privet Drive and make their lives miserable. And then I'm going to steal you away and set Remus on them during a full moon. He'd like that. But alas, twas not meant to happen. The law proclaims such wonderful dreams illegal....damn._

_But to the main reason I'm writing this letter other than to check up on you. Yeah, yeah, don't roll your eyes at me mister, I'm your godfather and it's in the manual that I frequently check on you. But, listen Pup. I was told by Dumbledore recently that you had to stay with the Dursleys for the rest of the summer, even after you turned seventeen. I don't agree with this and we duked it out in the kitchen at Grimmauld. Remmy talked to the old goat and says that his reasoning was hoping that you would 'make amends' with them. Obviously not going to happen. We both know it, you know it, Molly knows it, hell I'm pretty sure Lucius Malfoy knows it. _

_But Remmy argued with the headmaster as well and the gist of what was discerned from it is this: Dumbles definitely doesn't like our close relationship, he thinks I'm a bad influence on you (you just had to get pierced and tattooed didn't you?). This is really just a plot to keep you away from me. Bastard, that's what he is trying to take my pup from me. If you do stay all summer he's going to keep you there an extra week.__ He will give you the option of refusing though don't worry about that-we've taken care of it.__ I'm sorry my pup, it's the soonest we could persuade him to let us have you. He arranged for you to stay with Molly and the others, without consulting us, and Remus fixed him right about that so you will still be staying with me and Moony like you normally do. Hermione will also arrive to stay with us the morning after you do. We were going to have it be a surprise but hey, after reading this you probably need some good news. And the Weasleys and even....Draco and, **only if you absolutely positively beg and insist**, his father are welcome to come over any time you'd like._

_Remus sends you his love and I do too. We wish you an early Happy 17th Birthday Pup._

_Love,_

_Padfoot(and Moony)_

_P.S. You'll get your birthday present when we next see you!_

This letter, although bearing some bad new, had been very much looked forward too. The next one, however, was not. At all. In any way, shape, or form.

_Dear Harry,_

_I hope you are doing well this summer break. It has been brought to my recent attention that you are turning seventeen soon and I wish you a very Happy Birthday-_

See, not so bad right? Wrong. Let's continue with the letter shall we?

_However, you cannot be allowed to depart from your relatives care after you become of age just yet. The blood wards will not immediately dissolve- **'Liar,'** _Harry thought after reading this, _**'Does he truly believe that I know so little. That I am so ignorant and unaware that the blood wards will fade as soon as my birthday hits? He's an even bigger fool than I thought if he does.'**- and if you would stay for another week or so it would be much safer for you. Also, Harry, I have a request to ask of you. _

_I am aware that you and the Dursleys are not very close and it pains me to think that you are so estranged from your only remaining family. Staying with them for the remaining summer time before your seventh year at Hogwarts would be an excellent opportunity to reconcile with them. If you simply tried to get along and made an effort to understand them and their fear of magic I am sure that you would find, Harry my boy, that they are good, respectable people with only an irrational fear. You, of course, do not have to agree and stay but it would be better for you in he long run to not be so distant from them._

_With Regards, _

_Albus Dumbledore_

With a low growl in his throat Harry crumpled the letter into a ball and chucked it at the wall, seething silently. The parchment reeked of persuasive magic. The damned old fool had been trying to force him into remaining here! What only made Harry all the angrier, was that this was the first time since reading the letter that he had detected this, which meant that Dumbledore had placed another spell over top of the this one to make sure that Harry didn't accidentally discover the persuasion charm. As if he was that weak as to not sense the magic. As if he were that much of a blundering buffoon that he could defeat Voldemort countless times but couldn't do something as simple as running a scan for spells. It was insulting and what was worse was that Harry knew only two things had stopped him from being affected by it: one, he could throw off any form of the imperious and that strange...immunity...also applied to persuasion magic and anything else that tried to take away his own mind and choice, and two, Sirius, Remus, Severus, and-shockingly-Lucius, had all placed various spells on the choker he always wore to shield him from magic like this and also any minor curses that might be cast against him. Unable to stay sitting, Harry began to pace.

"I can't believe Dumbles would actually do something so stupid as to try to and enchant me into agreeing with such an asinine proposition. Does the man truly have no intelligence whatsoever?!" Suddenly a wickedly satisfying thought entered his mind. "Well, let's see how overly arrogant and 'superior' the bastard thinks he is to me when he reads my letter! I'd bet anything he the old goat won't expect me to have refused him his 'favor'! Uhhh, I can't even begin to believe this! Of all the stupid, ridiculous, insulting, rude, gormless, horrible, treacherous, sneaking, scheming plans he tries this! A fucking persuasion spell and playing on my desire to have a family!" The frustration built and built and Harry whirled around in mid step, crashing his fist against the wall and leaving a large dent. "How low can you go Albus Dumbledore?" The raven whispered bitterly into the quiet, "How low _will_ you go?"

Heart hurting at the attempted manipulation Harry slumped bonelessly onto the floor, gazing out the open window watching the stars begin to appear. His thoughts were heavy as he stared and so were his eyelids. Fatigue threatened to pull him under and just before he succumbed to the siren call of sleep he muttered a quiet, sardonic, "Happy Birthday to me."

_Warmth. That was the first feeling in Harry's mind. Following that was surprise, curiosity, and then confusion. Why was he warm? He distinctly remembered falling asleep on the cold floor of his room and it had been a rather chilly night for summertime. He really shouldn't be feeling warm. Struggling slightly from the flat position he was lying in, Harry blinked open his eyes, shocked to see that it wasn't his room he was in, but his inner mind. "What the hell?" He pushed himself up and felt a slight rustling of feathers against his bare upper torso. Looking down at himself he saw the cause of his warmth. A pair of jet black and blood red wings, exactly like the one tattooed on his back, were wrapped tightly around his body like a cocoon. "My gods what the fuck?!" he yelped, unfolding the appendages and gingerly flexing them outwards._

_A clear, tinkling laugh coming from his right side made Harry whip around, hurriedly getting to his feet, magic swirling defensively around him. Sitting there, cross legged on the grass, was beautiful woman. Her long flame red hair was streaked throughout with bright gold and fell down over her shoulder in a thick plait and coiled on the ground like a serpent. Deep blue eyes surveyed him warmly, a hint of laughter shining through in them and the pale color of her skin nicely complemented her delicate features. Her curvaceous body was clad in a cream blouse and a long blue skirt. Outspread behind her was a pair of pure white angle like wings, arched gracefully, and her feet were bare. She sat, twirling a crystal wand elegantly between her slim fingers._

"_Who are you?!"_

_The woman laughed once more and Harry was again reminded of bells at the sound. "I am Iara," she answered simply, gesturing for him to sit down with her. Harry did so and eyed her warily. A tense silence reigned supreme over the two until Iara became frustrated at the younger continuously looking at her as though she was going to bite his head off with her teeth. "For heaven's sake childe! I'm not going to feed you to the sharks; you can relax!" A little more gently she added, "Aren't you even the least bit curious as to why I'm here?"_

"_No. I know why you're here." Harry avoided the questioning gaze and absent mindedly flicked a piece of hare over his shoulder._

"_Oh, do you? Well, what am I here for then? Go on, tell me."_

"_I would have thought it was obvious. I've finally gone crazy. Absolutely, barking mad. That's why I have some made up woman sitting in my head."_

_Iara stared at him, shock plastered all over her lovely face. "Now I don't know how you came up with that idea childe but you're wrong. You are most certainly not crazy and I am most certainly not an imaginary woman!" The last part was said with a hint of indignation. "I am here to explain your creature inheritance to you. Or, your magical inheritance, if you prefer."_

"_Oh."_

"_Yes, oh. So, you can clearly see that you have wings yes? Well, this is because you are becoming an E__lementară, Aripi Shifter. In English, that roughly translates into Elemental Wings Shifter. I am one as well, obvious by the wings. Now normally Elementară, Aripi Shifters already know who and what they are but, you are not pure. That is to say, you are only partly shifter. This means little to us, only that you will not have have had the automatic knowledge that full shifters are blessed with at birth. It takes awhile for them to understand it all but the information's all there. You still have our full and complete powers and abilities. We are what we are for a reason childe. Each shifter has a pair of wings, unique to themselves." _

_"We are a rather rare species and are few and far between, therefore no two Elementară, Aripi have the same wings. It's possible that they may be slightly similar to another's but they are not ever the same. We can also shift them, or more correctly, hide them. Here, let me show you." Iara paused in her explanation for a minute to demonstrate. The gorgeous wings melted into her back and in their place was a pretty silver plant with light pink flower buds tattooed across her shoulder blades in diagonally. _

_"You see what I mean?" Harry nodded softly. "Good. Now some shifters, when they hide their wings, do not have a tattoo in place of it. I do, and you will, because both of us already have tattoos there. I acquired my flower when I was thirteen and that was a personal choice. That you have a tattoo like your own wings is, believe it or not childe, is just a coincidence._

_We are called elemental because each Elementară, Aripi can administer at least a minor control over one or more of the four elements. You, I can feel, are attuned with three of them. They feel like fire, earth, and air. I myself am only acquainted with air and earth. It's correspondent to what is best suited for us, much like the inner mind is for each sentient being. Your control over your elements, however, is rather shoddy and I think that this is one of the reasons behind your uncontrollable magic spurts."_

"_Wait. Iara, how did you come to know about my spikes?" Harry broke in. He'd never met this woman before! How could she know about how his magic was acting up? "And what do you mean, __one__ of the reasons? What is the other one?"_

"_Hush and I will explain young one. Now, I did tell you that I can sense that you have an affinity for three of the four elements did I not?" The handsome raven gave a swift nod, anxious to know why his power was so untameable. Iara, as though sensing this, gently placed a hand on his forearm. "Calm childe, I am getting to it. As I was telling you, you have an affinity for three elements. This gives you a tremendous power boost. The power boost occurs before you fully come into your inheritance and your magic is trying to deal with the...upgrade it suddenly acquired. Therefore, it becomes more wild and harder to control until your inheritance and mate comes to help it calm down."_

"_WHAT__!? WHAT DO YOU MEAN MATE?"_

_Iara fixed him with a curious gaze. "Are you averse to having a mate, young one?" she inquired gently._

_Harry flushed and shook his head, raking a hand through the thick mane of raven hair. "No no, not at all. I mean, I just, it's a surprise. I didn't even know I would have a creature-magical-whatever inheritance and I'm being told all about how I have wings now and can control fire, earth, and air and that's not really so hard to comprehend because I do remember reading a little bit about the Elementară, Aripi Shifters but it never mentioned mates or anything and that's just...a bit surprising Iara. Truly, I quite like the idea of having a mate....what is it you were saying about my mate being able to help with my uncontrolled magic before I so rudely interrupted you?" Harry gave her a smile, feeling embarrassed about how he had overreacted, especially since now that he thought about it, the idea of having a lifelong mate was very pleasing to him._

_Iara smiled back in understanding and placed a sweet kiss atop his scar, leaving Harry shocked that she would do something so loving to him when she had barely known him for little more than half an hour. "Don't worry about it childe. I reacted much the same way when I discovered I had a mate, though I was less agreeable to the idea. But anyhow, what I was saying is that your magic and inner shifter will recognize you submissive's magic and in turn will settle so that there is no danger of your submissive mate getting harmed in magical backlash or something of the sort. Another thing is, your magical spikes are not because of your power boost. In fact, it is because of your mate." _

_"You see there is something connecting mates that is called the Constientizare Voal. It connects the submissive and dominant together before their mating but only the submissive mate feels it. It pulls them towards their dominant. Think of...oh damn, what to use...?" Iara looked stumped, biting her bottom lip in thought when suddenly her face lit up. "Oh I've got it. Now Harry, I'm going to do something with my...well, wand I suppose you would call it." she gestured to the thin, crystal instrument she held. "Lega."_

_Quite unexpectedly Harry felt something tie around his wrist and looked down to see a silver chain connecting him to Iara. The woman herself stood up and walked a few feet away. It was with some surprise that the raven haired boy realized that he felt deeply compelled to follow in the direction the red headed shifter had gone in. Iara let Harry absorb the effects of her enchantment before releasing him. "That was a bit strange Iara." he commented, rubbing his wrist in __contemplation._

"_Yes well that is what the Constientizare Voal feels like to the submissive mate in a relationship, but the feeling is even more intense and consuming. When the power boost first hit your magic might have become wild but your sub feels the affect of the Voal more acutely then ever before. They begin to lose time spaces in their mind and often end up staring into nothing, so overwhelmed with the Voal as they are. Your spikes are all the times when your mate felt the connection and one of the two symptoms occurred. Your magic feels when your mate is closer to you and reacts, thus your magical spikes. Now, do you have any...questions? About mates or anything like that childe?"_

"_Actually," Harry said, considering, "I do. Firstly. I noticed that when talking you often mentioned submissive and dominant mates. Could you explain that?"_

"_Certainly. In a mate relationship there are two roles-the submissive-a bearer, and the dominant-a protector. The submissive would be the the Beta; the one to bear children to their dominant, whether the relationship is homosexual or not. The dominant would be the Alpha; the one to make most decisions regarding safety and health in correlation to the sub and also the one to protect the smaller of the two mates. An alpha is, usually but not always, the bigger and -well- for the most part stronger of the two people in the bond. Really, it is simply loosely based on who desires to protect and who desires to __be__ protected. Nothing more really, and nothing less."_

"_Wow. Ummm...why do you seem so set in the belief that I will be the dominant in my mating?"_

"_Besides the fact that you were not on the receiving end of the Constientizare Voal? You just absolutely reek of domination. I am not sure how else to put it. There is just...something...some unidentifiable thing...about you that somehow screams 'Alpha Male.' Does that satisfy your curiosity sufficiently?"_

_Harry shook his head and pressed a single slim finger against his lips. "One more question. I know I have never before come into contact with my future mate. How will I ever come in contact with them?"_

_Iara smiled and soothed his fears quickly. "Do not worry. You shall meet with him very soon. Mates who were previously unaware of each other meet as soon as the dominant gains inheritance. The case is the same for you and your young mate. But, I will warn you now, it is doubtful that your sub will understand what is going on and what has been happening to him and why his whole life. He will be confused and possibly scared. It will be up to you to explain this to him. Do you understand?"_

"_I do...he?" Harry raised an eyebrow and Iara smirked, vibrant green clashing with knowing blue. "Yeah, yeah, I get it now. All knowing sort of thing."_

_That made the shifter laugh. "Of course childe." The now seventeen year old offered her a warm smile, which was returned in full. When almost ten minutes had passed Iara stood, breaking the immovable peace that the two Elementară Aripi Shifters had fallen in to. "It is time for you to return to your body childe. While you were with me your form was undergoing a painful transformation to fully adjust your body to the creature inheritance. Now, the change has almost been completed and your mate will soon appear to you. Something tells me it is safe to assume __that you would rather like to be there for something of this caliber."_

"_Yes, I would..." Then hesitantly, unsurely, Harry reached out and hugged the woman before him. "...Iara? Will we see each other again? I believe I've become rather fond of you over the past couple of hours."_

"_Aahh, I did not tell you, did I? Well, I suppose we all forget certain things at one point or another. I have been appointed as your watcher. All half-Aripi have them. Essentially, I am your new guardian angel but you can see, touch, hear, feel, and talk to me. I will be with you for as long as you have need of me and if you still willed me to stay, even when you didn't need me, I would remain. Does this agree with you my childe?" Blue indigo eyes sparkled as thought they already knew what the emerald eyed boy would tell her._

"_That arrangement is very agreeable with me Iara. I am glad for your company." Iara hugged him tight one more time before letting go and pushing him back towards reality._

"_Go on childe, you have a mate to meet. But before you go; as your watcher I can unlock your core magic if you'd like." Harry nodded an affirmative. "Then I shall do so. You will not notice much change other than that you will feel freer and your magic will flow easier, come easier, and be manipulated to your will easier, alright?" After another sharp nod from the raven shifter she disappeared into the willow trees and Harry snapped himself back his body, only to see a searing white light take over his vision completely._

* * *

Hermione, Jeff, and Diana, Hermione's mother, stared in horror at the frail form writhing beneath the black sheets. Kiri had started screaming bloody murder ages ago, convulsing on the bed and thrashing about madly. Hermione had immediately gone to her parents for help but neither of them knew what was wrong. The purple haired boy wasn't under any curses, the young witch had checked with every spell she knew, and there were no visible injuries anywhere on his person that could cause him this amount of agony. The obvious answer to this problem would be a horrible nightmare, normally, but this had been going on for a little over two hours and Hermione couldn't imagine a simple night terror wringing this type of reaction from her little brother.

A sudden absence in noise drew the brunette's attention back to Kiri, who had finally stopped screaming and thrashing and was now breathing heavily, midnight purple eyes wide open at last. "Mi, what happened? Why are you all in my room? And why do you look so frightened?" Kiri rasped out, vocal cords hoarse from crying.

"Oh, Kiri thank the Goddess you're alright!" Hermione threw herself at the younger teen, clinging tightly to him and murmuring a quietly spoken spell to help his throat. "I woke up a couple hours ago and went to check on you, next thing I know your screaming bloody murder and I'm running to Mum and Dad, all of us trying to figure out what was happening! It was terrible, we didn't know what to do to help you with whatever it was you were suffering from!"

The teen gently stroked her thick brown curls. "Sorry Mione', Jeff, Diana. I didn't mean to put you into such a state. But don't worry your pretty little head anymore big sister. I'm fine now and-" But they never knew what he had been about to say for the next thing they knew, Kiri had disappeared in a flash of blinding lavender light. When they could next see again Hermione turned to her parents with tear filled brown eyes.

"Mum...what will we do now?"

"I don't know sweetheart. I just don't know." and she gathered her distraught daughter in her arms.

* * *

Blinking away the sparks from in front of his eyelids, Harry searched around the room to see if anything had changed with the light, for something inside of him told him that there was indeed something that had been altered with the flash. In the dark, however, it was still a bit difficult to see even with his now enhanced vision; he almost didn't see the thin shadow that had backed itself up against a corner. He did hear the quiet whimper of fear though. Thinking fast Harry jumped to his feet and raced over to the light switch, flicking it on so he could see properly. And there was something to see.

Sitting curled up by his tiny desk was the small frame of the prettiest teenage boy the shifter had ever seen. He had a small, delicate body, full pink lips, pale porcelain skin, dark purple hair streaked throughout with tarnished silver and soulful purple eyes. It was apparent that the lithe ethereal being had just been pulled from bed for the only thing he wore was a pair of blue pajama pants and an over sized black t-shirt that kept slipping down his shoulder and revealing a large expanse of ivory skin. As his instincts raged at him to claim this lovely submissive, Harry finally came to the realization that the young boy in his bedroom was his mate-tired, trembling, and quaking with fear. Fear of him.

_'Well shit. What the fucking hell do I do now?'_

_

* * *

_

**Weee that's the end of chapter two. Next up: Kiri and Harry have a nice long talk while the Granger's tear their hair out from worry. XD. Oh! also, i don't know if i put people off from reviewing my story by threatening the flamers but please, please, please review. it makes my month when you do. and i'll give you a virtual cookie. **

**PLEASE REVIEW PLEASE REVIEW PLEASE REVIEW! XD. but you don't have. but i would love you all forever if you did. plus, it makes me want to update faster!  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Oh wow I'm so so sorry to everyone who reads my story for not updating for so long!! I meant to do it sooner but right after my last update I ended up sick for a week and then had a bunch of stuff to catch up on that I missed when sick so that took most of my time up plus not even three days after that my grandmother and cousins and aunts and uncles came into town and so I ended up being banned from the computer for longer than twenty minutes or else my dad would take it away(and never give it back i might add) so i couldn't update then. And when they all finally left on January 2 the internet in the house stopped working. Then it got fixed and my computer got a virus!!! A fucking virus!! Which was only just fixed yesterday morning so I spent all my time doing this so i could update today. Sorry for the delay and it won't happen again...(i hope). On to the Disclaimer!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. But I wish I did.**

**The loneliest place i have ever been was not when i was alone... it was in a room full of people that never even cared- another random quote!  
**

Chapter 3

Harry took a cautious step towards the smaller boy, who let out a quiet 'eep!' of fear and pressed himself back up against the wall, knees to his chest, eyes wide and scared. Not wanting to frighten him anymore, the Aripi stepped back and settled on the edge of the threadbare cot.

_'Well this is a disaster.'_ Harry thought, _'The poor thing is terrified of me. I mean, I didn't expect him to react quite so badly. After all, most peoples first instinct probably isn't to back up into the nearest corner when they find themselves in a strange place they haven't been to before. It certainly isn't mine. They usually flip out and start shooting questions at the first person they see for the most part, I would think. So...what's happened to my mate in the past that makes him so scared?'_ Unfortunately for Harry, it didn't seem like he would be getting any answers anytime soon. The purple eyed beauty still hadn't said anything. But thankfully, in the past few minutes, the shaking had tempered somewhat. The raven was glad for that. It mean that he was calming down a bit.

......Hours passed in silence and by 7 am the boy still hadn't spoken, not one single word. Somewhere after the first three hours Harry had given up on the two of them conversing and had summoned his birthday gift from Draco-a muggle book called The Stand- to him as he settled down to read. Harry figured that there was no reason in just staring at his mate, willing him to talk, when it obviously wasn't going to happen.

Besides that though, the boy had to be uncomfortable; what with the unnerving feel of eyes always on him. His theory on this was further proven when he felt the other finally begin to relax as he realized that Harry wasn't likely going to harm-or at least, continue eye raping- him. A few more tedious hours crawled by and soon it was ten in the morning. Harry had managed to get halfway through the book at page 421. it was around this time that the smaller boy spoke.

"Who are you?" he asked in a quiet voice. The raven dropped his novel in surprise and locked verdant green on the one speaking. When no answer was immediately forthcoming he asked again, "Who. Are you?" in a soft and lilting tone.

Shaking himself out of his stupor, Harry thought for a little while before replying, "Ry. I'm Ry. Who are you?"

"I'm not sure if I should tell you my name."

"Well," Harry pointed out logically, "I have to have something to call you."

The beauty considered this for a half a second before coming to he conclusion that 'Ry' was right. "Point. But I don't feel comfortable giving you my name. At least, not now," he amended. "So, just call me whatever you feel like for now." And as if suddenly just remembering that he was in some strange place, possibly on another continent for all he knew, demanded, "Where the _hell_ am I?!"

Number 4, Privet Drive, Surrey." The shifter answered, making a face. How he wished he were anywhere but.

"Oh thank Kami-sama," the smaller of the two whispered, slumping even further and nearly falling over. "I'm still in Britain."

Harry nodded, giving the male a kind smile. "Yes, Lovely, you're still in the UK." He received a blank stare after his statement and a raised eyebrow. Backtracking quickly in his mind, Harry reviewed what he had just said, and grinned wickedly when he finally figured out what was silently being asked.

"Yes. Lovely. You told me to call you whatever I wished and I don't know your name; therefore I will call you Lovely. Because, really, you've got to be the prettiest thing I've ever seen in my lifetime." The purple haired beauty opened his mouth to protest but all his exclamations of not being _pretty_, because he wasn't a girl thank you very much even if he was a bit feminine looking, were waved off by an unconcerned hand. Pursing his lips in annoyance, he swallowed his acidic retorts and settled for scowling darkly at the handsome being before him.

"Alright fine. You refuse to find something to call me other than Lovely? Then the least you can do is answer all of my questions."

"Of course I will," Harry assured, "but, you know, I would have answered any questions you had anyway. Ask to your hearts content."

The boy rolled his eyes and thought for a few minutes about which of the questions swirling about in his mind he wanted to know first. "...Anytime now," Harry prompted; mirth was clearly showing in his eyes and in the way he spoke to the child, who blushed and scowled again.

"Shut up Ry! I was just thinking about what I would ask first. I have a lot of things I want to know the answers to," came the angry and irritated response.

It probably should have made the raven feel bad about aggravating his poor, confused mate but with the furious blush on his pale cheeks and his full pink lips pulled into an adorable pout, the only thing Harry wanted to do was ravish the gorgeous creature before him silly. However, he had much better control than that and suppressed the urge. _You don't even know each other for goodness sake! _Harry scolded himself, _You shouldn't be thinking like that. Merlin and The Founders you don't even know the kid's name! Focus on getting to know him first dammit! Mind out of the gutter!_

"Ry. Ry!" His mate's shouting brought the raven's attention from his internal chastising back to the delicate hand waving in front of his face. Harry reached out and grabbed it to stop the frantic motion. He stared at the younger blankly for a second, before turning his verdant gaze to the appendage in his grasp, lightly tracing the underside of the pale wrist.

"That movement," Harry commented mildly, "was very annoying Lovely." The younger boy flushed at the slowly spoken words and stuck his tongue out.

"Well pay attention to what I'm saying instead of acting like a zombie, which is incredibly creepy by the way, and I won't do it anymore. Problem solved. Anyway, I was _asking_ you, _why_ can't I leave this place? I've tried several times already but..." he shrugged, rubbing his hand subconsciously against his throat, where he was used to having a chain clasped around his neck.

Shock filtered through Harry and then panic as he realized that he had almost lost his mate without ever even knowing his name. "You tried to leave?" he croaked out. "When? I was watching you all morning! You never moved." Frowning, the boy pulled off his shirt, making Harry gape, and turned around; baring his back and pointing to two separate tattoos. One of a dark blue Japanese style bird and another directly below that, a kanji that meant 'flight'.

"See these two tattoos?" he asked.

"Yeah. They're nice and all but what does this-"

"Kay, now shut up so I can talk." The other waited until Harry was obediently silent. "Good. Alright, so, I'm...ummm, how to put this delicately, well, I'm basically a freak of nature. Before you even try to protest, by the by, it's true and you aren't going to change my mind so save it. Now- when I was small, I mean-in the time before I was with my adopted family, I was living with wizards and witches, like you; but...your energy feel is...different, than theirs." he mused before shaking his head and resuming his tale.

"Anyway, like I said, I lived with people like you. And they all thought I was a wizard too, with good reason I suppose. When I was a little kid things would be set afire, lights would blow up into smithereens, rivers that had been dried up for years would suddenly be filled with water, objects would randomly float up into the air. A bunch of bizarre occurrences that were written off as accidental magic."

"Now in _Britain _you start your magical schooling at eleven right? Well, I was born _in Japan_ and raised for the most part _in Japan_ and over there we start school at age seven instead. So the people I was living with anxiously awaited the letter that would tell them that I had been accepted to the academy."

"The letter never came, phone calls were made; yes wizards know how to use the phone and all that spiel. It's only Britain that's stuck way back in the Dark Ages, well, and Albania," he added in response to Harry's confused look, "And the short and short of it is, the sensei-or you know, the headmaster to you people- never sent an acceptance letter because I'm not a wizard. Turns out that I was just...hmmm. I suppose you could say I was using magic but, at the same time, I wasn't."

"Whatever it is that I am, there's no one else like me. Least, not that I've found. To clarify-that is to say that to say that for my entire life, with all the men and women and kids I've talked to and met, no one else is able to do, what my body does naturally. I can do unexplainable things that you would all classify as magic. But it's not. Not for me. As long as there is a magical being around I can emulate the effects of what their power allows them to do and then some."

"I can control the all of the elements, though I have a tendency to favor water, I can use telekinesis, I can transport myself to and from anywhere I want without having to exert any effort or having any drain on my body. I could even do a Patronous without any problems at all."

"And you say you're not a wizard or magical creature?" Harry broke in.

"Yes I do because I'm not. If one of your kind or a Veela or Vampire or Werewolf or anything along those lines were present I can do all of what I said I can. But if I'm around non-magical people, those with no power at all? No, I can't. I'm as human and vulnerable as they are, with the exception of the martial arts training I still get from my sensei in Japan. Do you get it so far?"

"I think so. Basically, you're some beautiful ethereal being that can mimic the effects of magic when magic is close to you but when it's not you're just like a muggle. Is that it?"

"Pretty much." The boy answered, deciding to ignore the 'beautiful ethereal being' comment.

"Okay. But, what do your tattoos have to do with this?"

"I'm getting to that, if you'll be quiet?" At the others nod, he continued with his story. "So the wizards and witches I was living with were pissed. They wanted me gone, dead, extinct, non existent. None of them wanted anything to do with me anymore. However, they kept me with them at their home. For what reason I have no freaking clue, but from then on; they insulted, vilified, mocked and humiliated me."

"When my...energy, I guess...did anything they would throw a hissy fit like you've never seen before and on one occasion they beat me till' I was black and blue. Luckily, no scars were left. Not sure if I would have recovered from that. But that was the I accidentally blew up their car. Needless to say, I'm sure, I didn't stay there after that incident..."

"Long story short? They hit and I ran-transported myself right to here, completely by accident; but I can vow to you that it's the best thing to have ever happened to me so far in my young life because here is where I met my sister and her parents. They gave me a home to live in, a lot of love, and helped me heal my wounds-physical and emotional. I've lived with them ever since. They didn't know in the beginning about what I was and I never felt inclined to tell them what a freak I am. Until, you know, one morning we're having a nice big breakfast, preparing to visit the concert hall for my sister's violin performance and a big black _bird _comes crashing through the flippin' window."

"Then I find out that that my sister is a witch and I end up telling them everything, just completely spilling my guts out to all three of them. They don't care and just try to help me control and direct the energy, because that was my biggest problem. I didn't know how to stop things from happening, they just did and I couldn't do a thing stop it."

"A year later and Mai has come home for the summer and I get my first tattoos. Somewhere around the forth one we realize that my energy isn't acting up as much and I realize that this might just be the way to gain control. The depictions of ink on my skin somehow were helping me reign it in."

"A few of my tattoos are normal, not there for any real purpose and I happen to like them all. But some, a good chunk of them actually, _are_ there for a reason- to allow me to use any energy in a specific way."

"All I do is think about my energy and what I want it to do, and it does it, completely bending to my will...with the help of my ink. That the purpose behind many of my drawings. And the bird and my 'flight' kanji are for my transport ability.

"I have to activate both to go anywhere; just to be on the safe side-wouldn't want to end up in some random summer villa, and if the energy flows correctly to the kanji and bird it should begin to shimmer lavender and I should be able to transport. But since I entered this room it hasn't been working. I can feel that all my other activants are aware but not my flight. If I _**could **_transport I would be at home with my older sister and Jeff and Diana. So I ask again...why can't I leave?"

Harry considered his mate's question, carefully storing the extra information away for later. From what the other had just told told him, he should have been able to leave and go back to his family. So why, why, wouldn't he be unable to? _Dammit it all to the seven hells! This doesn't make sense._

_'__**It's because of the Constientizare Voal. It binds him to you, I already informed you of this childe. The connection will not allow him to leave you now that you two are finally together and the missing piece of his soul has been found, lest he die from the need to come back. The Voal protects the uniformed from running until everything has been explained and until your shifter is satisfied that your mate is properly marked as yours. For Aripi that have never met with their submissive- or even dominant sometimes- this process can take anywhere from a month to a year. This is a precaution encoded into Elementra Aripi Shifter mates, in cases like yours.' **_Iara's voice sounded inside his head.

_What the hell Iara?! Where did you come from?!_

_**'Shush childe and answer your submissive's question. I'll explain later.'**_

Not responding to Iara's comment, he turned and gave her explanation to the boy. "...."

"....Don't you have anything to say about this? Anything at all?" Harry asked after a minute of silence.

"...."

"...."

"Can you just explain to me why exactly I am here? I think I'll wait until I have all the information before freaking out completely." he said finally, shaking off the brain freeze that had momentarily paralyzed him and his thoughts.

"Alright. You're here because I'm an Elementara Aripi Shifter and _you_ are my mate. Since we've never met before now, the bond between us brought you to me once my body's transformation completed." Harry answered bluntly, figuring that he might as well be blunt and get straight to the heart of the matter.

"Oh. And what exactly _is_ an Elementara Aripi Shifter? I've heard of them before but I was, what, 5 at the time and it was only mentioned in passing about how rare they are. Not any talk of mates or anything. And could you explain what...I mean, what you...what did you mean, Constientizare Voal? Is that the pull that I've lived with all my life? And submissive!! What did you mean by submissive?! And, and....and I'm so confused." The purpled haired teen moaned, closing his eyes and dropping his head down on top of his hands in frustration.

The raven made a 'shh'ing noise and moved over to where he was sitting, rubbing the distressed boy's back. "Well, Lovely, it's like this."

* * *

Hermione Granger, resident bookworm of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, most reasonable and logical witch of the century....was having a panic attack. More specifically, she was running around her neighborhood with her parents, putting up 'Missing' posters with Kiri's face on them and asking every single person she ran into "Have you seen this boy in the last 24 hours?". Each time she did, she hoped the answer would be yes but unfortunately, no one seemed to have him. By four o' clock that afternoon, Hermione felt ready to cry.

Giving up for that day, all three of them trudged dejectedly into the kitchen for dinner. Diana opened the fridge and took out the lasagna that was left over from the night before, when Kiri had still been with them, heating it up and dishing it out on three plates. Jeff sat down next to his wife and daughter and they all began to eat in a morose silence.

Hermione sighed into her food, the most forlorn expression either of her parents had ever seen, on her face. "Mum, where could he be? How do we know if he's even still alive? Kiri could be dead or being tortured right now for all we know!" she sobbed. Jeff hugged his dismayed child close to his chest and stroked her curls.

"Honey he only disappeared less than a day ago. He hasn't been gone _that_ long. As far as we do know, he could have escaped from wherever he was taken to and could be on his way home _right now_. There's a number of possibilities. Currently, we're unable to rule any of them out. So for the time being, let's just get on with our dinner and maybe tomorrow will turn up something different."

Hermione sniffed and pulled away, brushing at her tears. "Okay Dad. Maybe you're right. He could even be home tomorrow!" she added positively, brightening somewhat. With that thought in mind, she dug into her lasagna without further ado. Jeff and Diana shared a look over their meal. Something told them that they wouldn't get their surrogate son back so soon.

******************

Jeff clicked off the bedroom light and crawled into bed, laying down next to Diana. His wife had her eyes closed, buried under the covers, and had been laying like that for some time so he could only assume that she was asleep. Settling down, Jeff tried to fall asleep as well, but thoughts and a deep seated fear of what could be happening to Kiri kept him wide awake. It was only when he became aware of the mattress shaking that he realized Diana wasn't resting. She was crying.

With a sigh, the older man turned onto his side and reached across his wife, flipping the bedside lamp on. There, bathed in a yellow glow, lay Diana, clutching a long silver chain pentacle necklace in her hands like it was a lifeline.

"Diana," Jeff called softly, trying to tug the pentacle away. She gave a soft barely audible sob and clutched Kiri's always worn necklace tighter. "Diana, you need to let go of that. He's not gone forever." A few more minutes of gentle coaxing and the pretty brunette slowly released the object. But as soon as she did her crying became full blown weeping and she launched herself at her husband.

"W-wh-why is it, that we c-can n-never seem to k-k-keep our baby s-safe!? Something l-like this a-always seems to ha-happen! Somehow h-he's always stol-stolen from us!!"

Unable to answer Diana honestly Jeff settled for holding her like one would an upset child, rocking slowly back and forth. And while the couple rocked, a few solitary tears streaked down Jeff's face as well.

* * *

It was a few days after harry had broken the news to his mate about being...well, his mate and the younger of the two was lying on his back, head in the raven's lap. A pale hand reached up and tugged on a loose lock of ebony hair. "Ryyy! I'm bored!" he whined playfully, still clutching the chunk of onyx.

Harry rolled his verdant green eyes, now permanently tinged with his magic's lavender sheen, and freed his hair from the teen. "Well then find something to do Lovely. Read one of my school books, try to call your sister again, something other than bugging me!" he cried, throwing his hands up in the air when his mate merely shook his pretty head stubbornly, slightly amused at how childlike the one with violet eyes could be. "Why not? You seem to like to read and mimic the effects of my spells."

"I've already read all your books while you finished your homework. And what's the point in trying to call when I can't leave your house and the telephone here is broken cause you couldn't control your magical backlash when your inheritance came? Side's the fat pig that is your cousin is down there and he's just freaking ugly and annoying and fat and stupid and gormless and-" the rest was stopped by a tan hand flashing up to cover his mouth, effectively cutting off what he was going to say.

"Okay I get, you don't like Dudley and want to stay up here." Harry commented mildly, mirth sparkling in his eyes.

The boy pouted from underneath his constraint and stuck out his tongue, licking his dominant's hand slowly. "Lovely!" the shifter yelled, eyes widening, "Are you _trying_ to make me rape you?!"

Blinking,the other shook his head, this time biting Harry's fingertips. "Then why are you doing that?!" Rolling his eyes, the submissive gripped his wrist with small, delicate ivory fingers, desperately tugging but unable to remove the hand. "Oh." harry said and freed the younger's mouth.

"Weirdo," he muttered, "I wasn't trying to make you rape. You just have a dirty mind."

"Be that as it may..." the raven admitted, still trying to control his impulses. Not knowing what to say to that, the purple haired beauty said nothing. For several minutes the silence reigned. Bored once more, the teen began to fiddle and rub a hand against his bare neck where his pentacle should have been. Harry observed this quietly and started to concentrate on figuring out a game they could play.

"...Lovely? Would you be opposed to playing a game? I can tell you're bored. A game would help alleviate that." Curious, the boy propped himself up onto his elbows, now maintaining something that at least _resembling_ a sitting position.

"What kind of game?" he asked warily.

"A Q and A. Question and Answer. More specifically, 20 questions."

"Uuummm...okay! Why not? But," he warned, "You have to always answer honestly. And I declare that in this game, you have one pass you can use to refuse to answer only one question."

"Agreed. You want to go first or should I?"

"You can. I don't really care much," came the indifferent response. The submissive slowly pushed off of his elbows and came to rest against Harry's chest, strong arms wrapping loosely around his slim waist.

"Alright Lovely. My first question is, what is your name?"

Shocked, the young teen whipped his head around, a chunk of silver falling into midnight purple eyes at the sudden movement, and stared at a cautious looking Harry. _Ne, ne what?! He wants me to tell him my name? After only knowing him for such a short time? But-but, I thought he had given up on that. He hasn't asked me that since I first came here. Why is he bringing it up now?! _"Why?!!" he yelped, not meaning to be _quite_ so loud.

"Because, Lovely, I'm bonded to you," Harry replied carefully.

He understood why his mate would not want to part with that information just yet, considering that they hadn't know each other for very long and he probably still wasn't sure if he could trust Harry or not but the fact was that he couldn't continue to call him 'Lovely' forever. As a term of endearment it was fine, but that wasn't his mate's _actual_ name and he didn't feel comfortable treating it as such.

"Because I'm curious about it? Mainly though, because it shows that you trust me to some extent, even if just the tiniest bit." he offered, "Take your pick. All apply."

A pregnant silence was all that was heard as the other shifted from side to side. "Kiri," he offered suddenly.

Confused, Harry gave a startled look towards him. "My name. It's Kiri," he clarified, shyly lowering his eyes and then glancing up briefly at Harry through his lashes.

"Ah." Then, he extended his hand and placed it softly on his mate's soft porcelain cheek. Raising the other's head up gently, he pressed his mouth briefly to his sub's and whispered against pink petal lips, "Thank you...Kiri," before drawing back.

A crimson flush stained Kiri's cheeks and he glared, with a half hearted "Bastard," mumbled under his breath. "It's my turn to ask a question now."

"Yep, it is," Harry confirmed.

"Hmm, what's your favorite color, then?"

"Silver or dark blue. Yours?"

"I'd have to say a really dark red or black. Either one is good, but silver isn't bad. When were you born?"

"July 31st, 1989."

"Damn, you're almost seven months older than me. Mine's December 12, 1989."

Harry smirked and nuzzled the pale neck in front of him, biting the skin delicately and increasing the blush on Kiri's face. "You're younger _and_ submissive. Interesting. Anyways, my next question. What does your sister look like?" he wondered, out of sheer curiosity.

"Well," Kiri began thoughtfully, "She's actually really beautiful. She's got gorgeous light brown hair and flawless peach skin and a figure to kill, if you like women. Her eyes are a really dark brown and always have this, just, this sense of warmth when look into them, save for when you make her really really pissed off. But she likes to hide it, or she just doesn't see it somehow but I'm not sure how that's possible unless you're blind. I mean, yeah, her hair used to be seriously frizzy but this summer it got better and now she has these really awesome curls instead. I don't know...I personally think that my sister is one of the most beautiful people in the world." he finished, fading out quietly.

"Hmm, interesting. You're sister sounds like she would get along very well with a friend of mine. But, that's besides the point. You turn, next question."

"I want to know...Why do you hate this place so much? You, in the past two days, let me go downstairs once and when you heard your cousin's voice talking to me you went...well, you went batshit crazy. It's obvious that the kid is a moron with no intelligence whatsoever and all but, that doesn't really explain anything. Sure, Mai and I have stayed with relatives that we aren't very fond of-some are down right imbeciles- yet, we don't hate them like you despise your aunt and uncle."

Harry fell silent and turned contemplative, thinking over the question. _'Why do you hate this place so much?' _The answer was a bit obvious to him. His relations had made everything around the house 'sterile' so that his 'freakishness' wouldn't spread since he had been very small; they made him live in a cupboard for the first ten years of his life; they treated him like he was nothing more than the scum between their toes.

They had delighted in making him work like a slave, would have handed his head happily to Voldemort on a silver platter if it meant that they could finally be rid of him for Merlin's sake! _But, _he mused, _Kiri wouldn't know about that. And now I have two options to choose from: explain all this to him or, use the pass and skip this question. Which to pick, which to pick?_

"Kiri, I would rather not talk about this. It's a very...sensitive...subject for me. I...don't like talking about it." Harry hesitated before adding, just in case, "It's not...that I don't trust you but-"

"Ry, it's fine. Don't worry about it. I understand and I'm not mad. Just curious," looking down Kiri continued, "but...I haven't told you all my secrets. Why should I expect you to spill all of yours? Answer: I shouldn't _and I don't_. That wouldn't be very fair of me, just like it wouldn't be fair of you," he added pointedly and brushed his silver strands behind his ear, "We're mates right? Bonded together with unbreakable chains, couldn't escaped if we tried, ne?"

"Well, that means we have all the time in the world to get to know each other. So just, I dunno, relax. You don't need to freak out on me like that. It's only a question after all." Kiri reassured the dominant. A flash of uncertainty blinked through beautiful eyes before Kiri hesitantly leaned up and gave Harry a swift kiss on the cheek. As quickly as he had advanced, the sub retreated, face flaming.

_The heck is wrong with me? I'm a boy dammit! I don't blush!_

**You've never been in a situation like this that would cause you to blush really. Until now, that is. Besides you might be a boy, but let's face it- you're the one playing the girl in this relationship.**

_WHAT?! I am Not! _ Even as he said this, or I suppose thought would be a more accurate term, Kiri could almost _see_ the voice rolling it's eyes.

**Let's go over the facts shall we? One- the raven you're sitting on is pretty damn big! Seriously how tall is the guy? 6"4-6"5? _And_ he's got a _very_ fit body. **Cue leering grin. **Not only that, but despite the long hair, he doesn't even look kind of feminine. You on the other hand, are a midget compared to him. While you are incredibly, almost abnormally so, fast your strength is only half of that. Not to say that you're weak because you aren't. But still...and to top it all off, he's blatantly a guy while you are borderline androgynous. Want to tell me again how you're _not_ playing the uke? **

_...Fuck off. Who the fuck are you anyway?_

**You're an idiot kid. I'm you-duh. **The voice replied scornfully.

_I'm sorry, _Kiri thought in disbelief, _Could you repeat that? I could have sworn I just heard you say you're me._

**Bingo. I'm you. But unlike you, at the same time. I'm not under any delusions of not being the girly one. I know what I am. I'm th one who snaps you out of fantasy land occasionally and makes you face the cold hard truth.**

_Soo...my conscious essentially._

**Yep. You know, you're taking this better than expected. Actually, taking everything that's been happening better than expected.**

_Well over the years I've learned to take the unexpected events that always happen to me in stride. You see, it just makes my life so much easier when I'm not freaking out every ten seconds._

**That's something I'll have to keep in mind from now on. Oh, and by the way?**

_Yes?_

**Ry is flipping out right about now. You might want to pay more attention to your outside surroundings. **The conscious snickered before fading away. Kiri, now with nothing to distract him, was keenly aware of Harry quietly panicking behind him. The lithe toned body he was sitting on had tensed up and cool hands were gripping his hip bone and shoulder respectively, relaxing only minutely when the purple haired boy glanced at him.

"Kiri...are you...okay? You....blanked out on me for awhile. I got worried." Harry spoke in a controlled tone, even as his form slowly but surely wound down. Kiri had been fine talking to him and then he just suddenly out of nowhere fell silent, a faraway look in his eyes. Harry had called his name multiple times but to no avail. The teen hadn't responded at all.

He couldn't help but worry that maybe his mate had been reconsidering his choice to stay with the raven. After all, this _was_ a fairly bizarre situation and they hadn't ever met each other before. What reason would the petite sixteen year old have to stay?

"Oh, I'm fine Ry. Just arguing with my conscious. It's quite annoying." Kiri casually waved a hand, as if it were no big deal. Then, he turned so he was facing Harry, his slender legs straddling a trim waist, and a frown playing upon his lips and Harry could vow that it was the most adorable thing he'd ever yet seen. "I'm no the girl am I?"

"..." Harry blinked, stared, and then burst out laughing, forgetting his fear about Kiri abandoning him. "Are you...what? Oh...god," he gasped out between laughs, "I never imagined...that ever being asked....to me." The raven haired Elementara continued to laugh hysterically and Kiri had to wait almost five minutes before the other was able to speak properly.

"Well," he asked expectantly, "Am I the girl?"

Seeing that Kiri genuinely wanted an answer, an _honest_ answer, Harry tried his best to reply without offending his mate. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to call him a female. "You are the uke. The submissive. I am the dominant. The seme. But- just because you're a submissive doesn't make you a girl, nor does it mean that you are weak and have to bend to my every whim. We might be mates now, but we are both still our own persons. Does that satisfy you?"

"So...I'm not considered the girl?"

Harry had to chuckle a little at the hesitant inquiry. "No, Lovely, you aren't a girl."

"Oh thank Kami. I did _not_ want to be seen by _anyone_ as a female or some helpless girly boy. I'm a kick ass fighter and I'm fast. Just because my appearance is almost androgynous doesn't mean I'm some pathetic wimp. Got it?" Kiri glared hard until he was satisfied that Harry understood his point.

He turned himself back around abruptly and leaned back against the hard lean chest in back of him. Not feeling inclined to continue talking Kiri closed his eyes shut, the game of twenty questions and his boredom long forgotten in his mind.

Soon the smaller boy had drifted peacefully off to sleep. The thin chest rose up and down with every deep breath that the pale beauty took. A gentle smile stole across the savior's lips as he took in the sleeping expression on Kiri's face and he maneuvered them both so that they were lying much more comfortably on the bed, the more petite encased in a pair of strong ropy arms. Kiri smiled in his slumber and snuggled closer to the warmth that Harry was exuding, burying his face into the crook of a tan neck.

* * *

It was some time before Kiri was awake and coherent again. He sleepily blinked open his intense violet eyes to see a shadowed form sitting on the floor of the room against the foot of the cot. The curtains were pulled open and shining moonlight streamed into the space in thick spans of light. A light breeze blew through the open window and brushed over his face, stirring his hair and making a few stray strands whip him across the cheek. "Ry?" Kiri murmured softly, "What're you doin'. It's late...I think...shouldn' you be sleeping?" the words were mumbled, his eyes quiet and content.

Tearing his eyes away from the page he clutched firmly, Harry gazed happily at his mate. "Welcome back to the land of the living Lovely. How was your sleep?" his voice was surprisingly light and teasing for so late at night.

"S'fine. You didn't answer my question. Cha doin'?" The slender body of Kiri shifted and the boy slowly crawled over to where Harry was leaning, dropping his chin to rest on top of a broad shoulder, "Ts' the letter say?"

"It's good news for the both of us. Sirius, my godfather though he's more like an actual dad than anything else, just wrote to me to tell me that he's going to come and pick me up with Remus tomorrow to take me back to his manor for the rest of the summer holiday. I wasn't supposed to be able to leave this hell for another week or so," he commented, absently carding his fingers through Kiri's messy hair and glancing down at the letter, "but he and Remmy, my pseudo uncle, managed to convince Dumbledore to allow to let me free earlier."

"Obviously you're coming with me," and the way it was said sounded more like a command than a statement, "and that's good for you as well because you'll finally be able to contact your sister. Hell, you can invite her over for all I care."

"But what will your dad and uncle think of all..._this_," the younger wanted to know, gesturing vaguely with his hand at the two of them.

"If you're asking how they'll react to you and I being gay I'm positive they won't have a problem with it. Sirius himself prefers men so he'd be a right hypocrite if he had anything snarky to say. As for Remmy, he's a werewolf and not big on _any_ prejudices, Lovely. Plus, he's bi and has been friends with Siri for years. It's not a big deal for him. You have nothing to worry about. I'll explain everything that's been happening to them once we arrive."

Kiri nodded tiredly and attempted to hide a large yawn behind one delicate white hand. "M'kay," he murmured.

Harry blinked at the complacent tone and twisted his head to face Kiri's enchanting porcelain features. "Are you still sleepy Kiri?" When all he received for an answer was a delayed nod of the head he chuckled quietly. "My poor little mate," he cooed, "you must be exhausted. The past three days have to have been very stressful for you and are probably finally catching up to you. Go back to bed."

"M'kay," Kiri repeated, still very complacent. When Harry raised an expectant eyebrow at him the former sighed and and lifted his head, crawling back to the head of the mattress and curling up underneath the covers. His eyelids already beginning to flutter close, Kiri stared a half lidded gaze at the dominant shifter and asked sleepily, "Ry? Ll'you sleep next to me? Jus for tonight, please."

Unable to make himself refuse his mate's request, Harry pulled himself onto the bed and slid up in next to Kiri, wrapping an arm around the slim waist and drawing the other back against his chest. "Goodnight Kiri," he whispered as he closed his eyes. But there came no response, for the beautiful young teen had already fallen back into slumber, and Harry followed him soon after.

* * *

**Well, like it, love it, hate it and want it to burn in hell? What did you think of this chapter? Was it too cheesy or anything like that? I want to know what your opinion on my story is! So...Please REVIEW!!!! Pretty please with a cherry on top? **


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: Seriously I feel horrible for not updating as soon as i meant to but I keep getting sick and midterms were this month too. Also, bad case of writers block. My apologies to all who are nice enough to read my story.**

**Disclaimer: yes of course i own Harry Potter. I'm secretly Rowling, i have a account and i'm writing this story because my publishers said that i wasn't allowed to make Harry gay, Sirius come back to life, the bad guys the good guys, and Dumbles a power hungry manic old man with bad fashion sense (though i did the bad fashion sense thing anyway)....oh wait no i'm not! i'm just someone who humbly worships J.K.'s writings. don't own harry potter. wish i did though. that would be nice.**

**When life gives you lemons...make orange juice and leave the world to wonder how the heck you managed it. **

* * *

Chapter 4

"You're acting like a chicken that's had it's head cut off Ry." Kiri commented idly, perched precariously on the edge of the pale wood desk. He watched with avid amusement as Harry ran around the room, randomly chucking things into his trunk and checking to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything important in his haste. Upon hearing his mate's words however, he stopped and glared heatedly.

"I have nothing packed and I'm not inclined to waste any more time trying to do everything when Sirius is actually here. Considering I _just_ got Sin with the letter _last_ _night_ before I conked out with you on the bed. I think I deserve to be excused for rushing a little bit, thank you very much." Harry said in good humor, smiling gently to take off any remaining bite to his words that there might have been.

He reached put and tugged quick on Kiri's silver locks. "Sorry for being a little snippy Lovely." the raven looked apologetic. " I just want to get out of here already. Seventeen years was more than long enough time to wait."

Kiri gave a small grin and shrugged. "Ne, it's fine. I don't think you've been sleeping much anyways. S'probably why you're kinda grumpy. Mai ells me constantly that I'm a right bitch when I first wake up." He informed, critically eyeing Harry. "Also, you stink...and your hair looks like a crows nest. Go take a shower for Kami's sake."

Harry rolled his eyes and pulled harder on the bit of hair still firmly in his grasp. Kiri yelped and nearly fell off the desk in surprise, only managing to stay on by sheer luck and fast reflexes. "Ow! Ryyy, don't be so mean to me. Just cause' I tell you the truth doesn't mean you should _resort to petty retorts_." The boy imitated a cool, haughty voice when saying the last few words, sticking his nose up into the air.

Harry only tugged more punishingly on the wet silver strands, eliciting another squeal from the small teen. "Let go of me you bastard!" When the raven finally did release his hold, the submissive was quick to scoot away and eyed him warily.

"You're such a bastard," Kiri muttered, rubbing his head. With a smile, Harry imitated Kiri's previous actions and shrugged one shoulder.

"I'm going to take a shower," he said nonchalantly, "I'll be out in about ten minutes." And the shifter turned away, laughing merrily when he heard the repeated swear of '_Bastard!_' before a thump indicated something being thrown.

He slipped through the door and into the bathroom, starting a shower. Because really, Kiri had been right. He did stink.

Ten minutes later Harry emerged from the shower stall, steam filling the room and fogging the mirror. Deeming it unimportant, he dried off and ran his fingers through his hair, pushing the long bangs out of the way of incandescent green, lavender flecked eyes.

When he finished combing out the tangles, Harry took a brown leather band and secured the length of untameable onyx hair in a high ponytail, leaving a few thick strands free. Strong, elegant hands pulled on black boxers and worn light blue jeans. A dark belt with a white button up shirt, sleeves pushed up to the elbows, completed the outfit. The ever present choker was placed around Harry's neck, silver crescent moon hanging in the hollow of his throat.

Dressed and clean now, Harry stepped out of the bathroom and strode down the hall back into the cramped second bedroom. "Kiri, Sirius is going to be here in...." Harry checked the watch on his wrist, "fifteen minutes and why are you wearing your pajamas?"

Kiri looked at Harry was an utter moron for asking that. "Baka," he muttered under his breath. Louder he said, "I'm in pjs because _someone_ pulled me out of bed and this is what I happen to sleep in. I've been wearing these since I've been here. I can't believe you didn't notice." the boy explained as if it were obvious. And honestly? It should have been.

"Ah, I didn't think about that...."Harry trailed off and padded barefoot over to his trunk and opened the lid. The inside of it looked like a train wreck but the raven haired wizard ignored this and dug around. Soon he found what he was looking for and threw a pair of darker colored jeans and a black t-shirt carelessly at Kiri, who nimbly caught them. "You can wear my clothes for now. It's the best I can do till' we stop at your house. It's either something of mine or possibly something of Siri's. He's closer to your body size than I am, so his stuff should work for you fairly well. That alright?"

"Yes, it's fine," Kiri replied, "Now turn your ass around so I can change." The teen made shooing motions with his hands. Harry laughed and faced the bland white wall, humoring the boy's desire for privacy. There was rustling and the sound of a zipper being closed before... "You can turn back around now but I look absolutely ridiculous. It feels like I'm swimming in fabric...looks like it too."

_'Kiri's right about one thing,' _Harry thought, _'It does look like he's swimming in fabric. But it's cute I think, not ridiculous.' _Moving forward, the taller (and older) of the two walked behind Kiri and wrapped strong arms around the boy, pulling him back against him with an 'oof'. "It's cute." Harry was being honest. The kid was....perfect. "You look adorable Lovely."

The black shirt Harry had lent to his mate was huge on him, practically falling off of one shoulder and the jeans were about four or five inches too long, held up by a black belt the smaller had found on the floor. The clothes were baggy as well on Kiri, making his rather delicate frame seem even more fragile.

However, the color looked very flattering on him, accentuating the pale skin, midnight purple eyes, and dark violet and silver streaked hair.

"I don't look adorable; I'm not a girl Ry." Kiri pouted angrily, not happy at all. He was a boy dammit! Boys weren't adorable! "Every passing second I'm here and I feel more and more like a wimp. _**Which**_, I most certainly am not. I can't wait to start working with Haru-sensei and Zeik and the others again. It sucks to be stuck in one place with no way to leave. And I'm going to be in for hell when I get back there. I know I missed at least one of my scheduled spars." It sounded as though Kiri had stopped talking to Harry somewhere along the way and was now more so muttering to himself.

"And you chose to travel all the way to Japan to get your instruction in Martial Arts? Why bother? There are some excellent senseis here in the UK; I know from experience."

Kiri twisted his head back to look at Harry curiously. "Really? How?" he wondered aloud.

Harry smiled at the teen's curiosity and laid his head against his shoulder. "I became interested in self defense when I was very young and only had the opportunity to really get into a few years ago. I was very dedicated when I practiced but needed help. So, I searched around a bit and found a couple tutors. They were good and it helped me a lot. But back to my own question: why go to Japan for instruction that you could get well enough here?"

"Well," Kiri began slowly, "I suppose it's because before I came here to the UK I-" He was cut off unexpectedly by the explosive sound of Vernon's yells and Petunia's high pitched shrieks of horror. His pretty face morphed into an expression of total and utter confusion. "What in Kami-sama's name is that god awful noise? You'd think that Hitler himself just strolled into the house by the sound of it."

Harry snickered and pulled back, finally releasing his mate. "I suppose that to the Dursleys Remus and Sirius are just as bad or worse than Hitler. They hate magic more than anything else in the world, cept' for me maybe, and they hate wizards very existence. So probably they don't like the fact that there's a bunch in their 'normal' household. Ah well, shall we go down and meet them then?"

Without waiting for an answer Harry began to guide Kiri to the front door of Number 4, levitating his trunk and Hedwig's cage behind him. The magnificent snowy owl had left last night and was probably at Black Manor already.

"Did you even tell your relatives that you were being picked up today Ry?" The submissive asked while they were walking. He took the steps down two at a time.

"Nope." Harry smirked. "I think it was a lovely surprise for them. Don't you?"

Kiri blinked twice and looked at his dominant. "Not particularly. You should have told them. From I've been able to pry out of you, and honestly it's like pulling teeth with you, you stubborn man, they're going to be insulting your father and uncle right now in the hopes it will make them leave. I feel sorry for Sirius and Remus."

They both rounded the corner of the pristine house to arrive at the front door and saw Vernon Dursley, purple in the face and spittle flying out of his mouth, as he screamed. The man layed into the two people, one a good looking man close to Kiri's build with longish black hair and the other closer to Harry's build with sandy blonde hair and amber eyes. Vernon shrieked and swore at them both, telling the men exactly what he thought of _their_ kind.

When Harry cleared his throat to catch the attention of the three, and the whale of a bastard whirled around, glancing at Harry once before fixing his livid, beady black eyes on the small boy beside him, Kiri hissed venomously and narrowed his wide violet eyes into slits. He was very much reminded of the attitude his bastard of a birth father had adopted right before beating the hell out of Kiri and half killing him.

Needless to say, the teen didn't like Vernon Dursley. Not One. Little. Bit.

Harry looked down in concern at the sound of anger and then glared menacingly at his uncle to see the barely veiled fury, and well hidden fear, in his little one's eyes. He reached out with one arm and softly pulled the incensed boy into him, tucking the quivering body to his side tightly.

A burning began in between his shoulder blades and Harry slowly opened his black and crimson wings wide. Ignoring the stunned gasps from Sirius and Remus, he continued to extend them to their full majestic length, then gently folded the appendages around Kiri and threaded a loving, calming hand through the silky strands of hair.

"BOY!!" roared Vernon, "WHO the HELL IS THIS FREAK?! AND WHAT THE DLEEDING HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING BROADCASTING YOUR _FREAKISHNESS _FOR EVERYONE TO SEE?!! I'LL NOT TOLERATE YOU SPOILING OUR GOOD NAME! ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME, YOU UNGRATEFUL ABOMINATION?! PUT THOSE BLASTED THINGS AWAY!"

Sirius and Remus looked horrified; both because of how loud the whale was being. Didn't Dursley realize that he was going to attract attention to the spectacle currently happening right on his doorstep? Then, what he had called Harry registered in their minds and the two overprotectice wizards were all for tearing the fat lump to shreds. But they didn't. They managed to restrain themselves. Barely.

"Mr. Dursley," Remus began, drawing on his years of practice dealing with the Marauders, "perhaps you should lower your voice?" Vernon began to swell again, surely about to begin another angry tirade, when Harry cut in smooothly.

"Oh, yes, Uncle do try to keep quiet," the savior purred, eyes glowing deadly, "We wouldn't want the neighbors to give us the wrong sort of attention for this childish scene, now would we?" Falling silent, the man glared hatefully, still seething. He realized that Harry's wings were still protecting Kiri, who had buried his face in the crook of his mate's neck, and hissed at the teen.

"Put. Those. Blasted. Be Damned. _**Things**_. Away. Now boy!" With a smile, Harry shook his head slowly and removed, not his wings, but his hand from the top of Kiri's head and whipped out his wand. It seemed to scare the tub of lard sufficiently.

Not appearing to be in much of a hurry the Aripi shrunk the objects still floating behind him and then levitated them into his jeans' left pocket.

"I believe it's time for us to leave, Sirius, Remus. Kiri is exhausted obviously and I'm more than ready to leave this hell," he remarked nonchalantly as his wings sank back into his back and the smaller purple haired teen was exposed.

"Of course. We were just waiting for you to come down and then we planned to depart immediately afterwards. Now that you have arrived, I think it's best we be on our way," Remus replied, ever polite.

He beckoned Harry over towards where they were standing. The young wizard grinned and stepped over to his pseudo father and uncle, dragging Kiri along with him, and embraced the two tightly. "It's good to see you again. I'll explain everything about my...wings...and Kiri later, at home," he whispered to them.

The purple eyed boy stood off the side, letting all three have their moment and having regained his composure. He was glowering maliciously at Vernon, Petunia, and Dudley, getting a kick out of scaring the stuffing out of them. The three bigots still shyed away, despite Kiri's small stature, when a strand of blue-silver flame wrapped delicately around his thin wrist. Kiri snickered seeing this, and bounced over to Harry after the man had released his family.

Together the four of them turned and walked away, as Harry gripped Kiri by the waist, from Number 4, Privet Drive, never to return again.

They had just reached the sidewalk and strode into a secluded alley, about to apparate away when a stray thought suddenly hit Kiri. "Ry wait!" Harry stopped, glancing curiously down at his young mate. Sirius and Remus too, were staring inquiringly at the beautiful boy.

"What is it Lovely?" Harry wondered why Kiri had told him to wait to apparate. Didn't he want to be able to see his sister soon?

"Um...i was just wondering...well, since I'm going to contact Mai anyways, can't we just apparate to the house before we go to yours? I mean, I really feel bad. If I know my sister, and I _do_ know my sister, then she's going to be worried sick right about now. Jeff and Diana will be too. I really should go see them. They're....well, they're kind of the only family I have."

Harry shifted his weight from one foot to another and tightened his grip on Kiri's waist. "I....don't know Kiri. How do I know that you won't take off the moment you get there?"

Kiri rolled his eyes at Harry's apparent reluctance and sent the still burning blue-silver flame to wrap around the raven's wrist, successfully creating a, admittedly rather unorthodox, pair of handcuffs. The taller of the two teens relaxed marginally, though he didn't let go of the younger, as Kiri made a promise without words to not leave him when they arrived.

"Alright Lovely, we'll go. Tell me your address?" He phrased the last part as a question, keeping in mind that Kiri might not want to reveal the exact location of his home, and remembering how closely he had kept the secret of his name to his heart.

Kiri smiled happily, keenly recognizing the privilege of privacy that Harry was showing him. "Thank you! Er...it's in London somewhere...but...could you just drop me off at a place nearby? There's this park that'll work: Brook Creek; it's right across the street from my home. So...yeah, there is good."

"Whatever you want." Harry nodded towards the two men standing slightly away from the pair. "I assume that you two are going to follow us?" he asked.

Sirius grinned and bopped over, swung an arm around his godson. "Course' we are Pup." The dog animagus said merrily, "I'm sure the kid's going to give an explanation to his family that I, for one, would love to hear. No bloody clue as to what the hell's going on here but I'm sure it's bound to be interesting!" The man laughed.

"Oh, don't worry; Mai is sure to wring every last scrap of information out of us before the day is over. And then I'll get the worst lecture on the planet from her about why I should always carry a cell phone with me."

Sirius, Remus, and Harry grimaced simultaneously. All of them were thinking the same thing about Kiri's sister at that time. _'Damn that sounds like Hermione.'_ But the way Kiri said the words, in such an obviously thrilled way, let them know just how much the cute teen was missing his loved ones.

"You sound as though you love your sister very much Kiri. Is she older or younger than you?" Remus commented softly.

"Older. And oh, I do. I absolutely adore my nee-chan." Kiri replied, squirming anxiously in Harry's hold, "Now can we go so that I can see her before the century is up?" In answer the wizards around him disappeared with a loud crack. They wouldn't be seeing Privet Drive again.

* * *

There was the brief sensation of his body being squeezed through a thin rubber tube and then Kiri could see that he was in Brook Creek Park, Hermione's home casting a looming shadow over the four males in the midmorning sun. A light breeze fluttered through the air and carried over a sheaf of white printer paper with the pale boy's face plastered on it into the line of vision of everyone. The words 'MISSING' were printed over top the photo in large red block letters. Underneath this was a the regular contact information.

"Kiri..." Sirius trailed off, unsure of what to say and incredulous that the people the boy was living with would go to such lengths in such a short amount of time. And now that it was drawn to his attention, the Black heir could see that similar poster littered the area.

When they had agreed to come with Harry and visit Kiri's parents and sister, this was not something he had expected to see. Glancing back at his godson and long-time friend's faces, he could tell that they hadn't expected it either.

Kiri, on the other hand, wasn't very surprised at all and just shrugged on shoulder casually. He stepped out into the street to cross over to his house. Harry, Remus, and Sirius followed awkwardly behind him.

Trailing one pale pale porcelain hand over the familiar oak woodwork of the humble front door the teen grasped the golden knob and twisted, hoping against hope that it wouldn't be locked. Apparently, hoping against hope didn't work very well. The door was locked and wouldn't budge.

Kiri rolled his eyes in exasperation, a habit he seemed to be forming, and sighed, feeling a bit put out. "S'pose I'll try the doorbell then." he muttered, "Won't Mai just be _thrilled_?" Harry couldn't help but to smirk at his mate's aggravated mutterings and placed a calming hand on the small of his back.

Sirius snickered behind his hand, finding the non-wizard too amusing and cute for words. Remus looked vaguely amused, but seeing the child's face, vowed to keep that amusement to himself.

"Calm down Kiri. You act like it's the end of the world to use the doorbell," Harry whispered in a low voice, soothing the mildly agitated teen.

"It is!" Kiri moaned hoplessly, "Mai hates the doorbell, much prefers it when people knock instead but she won't hear it so I can't, and she's likely to beat me with her violin for not calling her to tell her I'm alright the second I recognized that I wasn't in immediate danger of dying!" But he took a deep breath and pushed to the silver button anyway.

A ringing sound echoed faintly back to their ears, as did a muffled and choked sounding 'Coming!' from inside the home. There was a few moments pause before the wooden door creaked open to reveal...Hermione Granger standing in the archway, as dumstruck as the three wizards in front of her, but for entirely different reasons. The girl didn't even seem to notice them, her brown eyes locked on Kiri's form and seeming to not take in anything else.

Her caramel curls were hanging limply down to her hips and her tanned skin seemed to have been bled dry of any remaining color. It left the witch looking frail and sick and as if she would be knocked over by the next breeze that happened to blow. Hermione's dark chestnut eyes were bloodshot and rimmed with dark circles. Her mouth parted in shock and she opened and closed it a few times before Kiri reached out and gently clicked her jaw shut.

"Hey Hermione," he whispered softly and then stumbled as the seventeen year old shot forward and embraced the petite figure.

Harry swore lowly when the momentum made him lose his balance and topple backwards into Remus who in turn fell back onto Sirius, causing the males to end up in a disarrayed human pile. Of course, Kiri had fallen with Harry because he was flame chained to him and Hermione who, managing to avoid it all together, had not wanted to fall on her ass like a fool, quickly released her brother.

It was then that she finally seemed to snap out of it and took note of her best friend and his surrogate father and uncle strewn across her doorstep. "Harry?!" Hermione shrieked in surprise. The scream reached Jeff and Diana's ear and led them to the chaos outside their house.

"Oh dear," Diana said, "This is unusual." Then, as she flicked a quick furtive glance over to her daughter, "Well, why don't you all come in for some lunch then? I think that there's a lot of explaining to be done." When no one moved Diana sighed and started waving everybody in. "Come on you ninnies we haven't got all day! Kiri has a spar with Haru-san at six o' clock and it's a good idea that he doesn't miss it."

This prompted Kiri, who by this point had dissipated his flame, to untangle himself from the others and stand up. He gave Diana and Jeff, who had been standing off silently to the side, a swift hug. He dashed into the house and started to bolt up the steps. "Gotta change into my actual clothes!!" he yelled down to his family by way of explanation for the hurried departure. Then, the teen disappeared altogether into the upper level of the house.

Hermione, not knowing whether to cry or to yell, simply led her unexpected guests into the living room.

It was then, when they were all seated on the couch or stuffed into an armchair, that Sirius, Remus and Harry realized why Hermione had been crying right before she came to the door. Splayed across the screen was a petite young boy, with purple and silver hair and dark midnight eyes in a a white uniform tied with a red belt.

It looked to be a practice of sorts and the little boy beamed when he finally nailed a move that he seemed to have been having trouble with. You didn't need to be a genius to figure out that the little boy was Kiri and that the brunette standing next to hi and giving him a huge hug was Hermione.

Transfixed, Harry continued to stare at the home movie as a man with short black hair and warm brown eyes, looking to be of Japanese decent, came into the picture. He clapped Kiri on the shoulder and gave the child a small smile. The raven haired savior would have continued to watch but Hermione turned the television off with a click of the remote.

"He was ten," she said quietly, "and it was the first time my parents and I had gone to see him work with Haru-san. Mum and Dad were worried that Kiri would get hurt trying so hard to get the move right and that he would be devastated when he failed to do so. But I knew he could do it." Hermione glanced back at the blank screen and then over to her guests.

"Then man you just saw there is Haru-san. He's Kiri's instructor and they have a...past. I think that he was only one who believed my little brother could nail it if he tried hard enough other than me. Not that I can exactly blame anyone who was thinking like that." Here she pause once more and looked forlornly at a picture on the mantle, "Kiri has always been so small after all. But he's back and so I don't have to resort to watching horrible home movies."

"I'm _not that small_!" A voice protested indignantly and they all looked to see Kiri coming down the stairs in a dark purple t-shirt and black combat pants, feet clad in a pair of old worn black sneakers. "Seriously there are plenty of guys smaller than me! And yeah you're right those home movies are pretty awful. I thought Kaa-san got rid of them years ago."

Hermione relaxed with a smirk and sank back against the couch, beckoning the violet eyed teen over. "Weren't they? I'm glad I hid the ones I found of me. You know, that's what she told us but I found them hidden away underneath Mum's bed a couple days before now. Also, name three. Bet you can't!" She laughed teasingly and waited as Kiri shuffled over and plopped down beside her, laying his head in his older sister's lap.

"Er....Tommy down the road is and-"

"He's nine!! And bigger than you were when you were eleven so don't give me any of that crap." the brunette interjected.

Midnight purple eyes shot daggers at the witch. "Can I continue? And Jack and....erm...." Kiri trailed off sheepishly and stuck his tongue out when Hermione giggled at his faltering.

"Okay I give you Jack he is smaller than you. Didn't think it was possible but he is...on the other hand," Hermione mused, "he does have an eating disorder that prevents him from being a decent size. You don't have that excuse. Your body is just naturally tiny."

"I'm taller than you!! Stop being so mean!!" Kiri whined.

"By an inch sweetie. And your figure is about as small as mine is; it's just not a female's body is all."

Jeff and Diana watched on with a content smile playing upon their faces as the two siblings interacted with one another. Remus and Sirius were almost stunned into silence. They'd never before seen Hermione Granger, resident bookworm, act so...normal almost and relaxed. It was hard for the two fully grown men to fathom. Harry for his part, was secretly getting a kick out of his mate's 'misery', though a mild worrying feeling resided in the back of his mind.

Observing the two, it hadn't taken him long to put together a few things. Firstly, that he had never told Kiri his actual full name and that would probably blow up in his face. Secondly, that this was _Hermione_ and she was his best friend and his mate was, apparently, his best friend's adored little brother. And thirdly, if Kiri and Hermione were as close as they seemed to be than Hermione had probably told her brother about him and he felt that it was safe to say that Kiri would _not_ be pleased when he found out just who harry was.

It took less than a millisecond for him to comprehend all of this.

Jeff, ever intent on finding out what had happened to his son, interrupted the playful banter between the two siblings. "Kiri, you know I love you as much and more than any son my wife would have given birth to right?"

"Yes sir," Kiri replied, acutely aware of the suspenseful eyes that were on his face, waiting to see where Jeff was going with this line of questioning.

"Good, I'm glad. You'll also know that I want and explanation for your disappearance and one for these three strange men sitting in our living room. Also, you're clearly unharmed, which I am forever grateful for'; why didn't you call us or come home sooner? Your mother and I were terribly worried. Not to mention the state your sister was in. Explain. Now. Or you're grounded until you get married and have kids. Even then I might not undground you."

Kiri nodded his understanding and began to speak. "I...I don't really know who those two are," he started, pointing at Sirius and Remus, "other than that they're Ry's surrogate family and..." Kiri faded out, biting his lip and glancing shyly at Harry through his messy hair. It didn't go unnoticed by anyone.

"...I umm...I don't really understand what happened all that well myself. Ry erm...he wasn't too detailed in the ah, explanation that he gave me."

When Jeff didn't look at all satisfied with this he pouted, shrugged awkwardly, and threw a pillow at Harry. "Don't look at me like that Tou-san. I really don't get what went on that night."

Hermione, who up until this point had been rather quiet since her father started speaking, glanced up from her hand sliding through Kiri's hair and fixed Harry with a penetrating stare. "Well, since little brother doesn't know it's up to someone _**else**_," she spoke directly with her deep brown eyes locked on raven shifter, "to tell us. So Harry James Potter, you have a lot of talking to do."

Harry swore mentally in several different languages when he saw Kiri's eyes widen and then fill with anger. Kiri hid it well though, and easily (or maybe not _easily_ but still) regained composure. No one noticed a thing. No one except for the person he was pissed off at.

Harry sighed, cataloging this as something to talk about later with his mate when they were alone, and absentmindedly fiddled with a piece of loose hair that had fallen free from his messily done up ponytail. He debated on how to tell them what was going on and decided on making it as simple as possible for them.

"Kiri is the mate to a dominant, possessive Elementara Aripi Shifter," he said bluntly. Everyone gaped at him incredulously and he shrugged, seeming to have picked up the habit from Kiri.

"Well it's true," Harry defended against the odd looks.

"Harry," Hermione said, "I just don't see how that's possible. Elementara Aripi Shifters are notorious in the Wizarding World and extremely rare. I know my Kiri is special but..." she trailed off and shook her head. "This just can't be." The brunette stated factually.

Growling, Harry reached out and jerked Kiri into his lap, wrapping one possessive arm around the teen's fragile body. His wings extended gloriously and settled around Kiri like a cocoon. "More correctly Hermione is it _is_ possible. Also more correctly...Kiri is mine and no one else's." The shifter snapped.

Kiri, looking like a deer caught in the headlights, had never before been in a situation like this one. Therefore, when every instinct was screaming at him to calm his dominant down, you couldn't very well blame him when he followed said instincts and kissed Harry full on the mouth, molding the contours of his body to press against the other's.

Nor could you blame Harry following his own instincts, also having never been put into this strange position, and kissing Kiri back violently, one hand pressing harshly into the nape of the boy's neck and pressing him even closer.

Of course, one has to consider the other people in the room. And as the family of these two mates had never had this happen to them before, you could also not blame them for nearly passing out and having a heart attack.

When Harry finally decided to stop kissing his mate and acknowledge the others in the room with a raised eyebrow, Jeff coughed slightly and spoke up.

"Right well, moving on from the shcoking ravaging of my son," he said and Kiri flushed in embarrassment, "I think we should all get a clear idea of what is going on here. Start from the very beginning."

With that having been said Jeff settled back against the couch, feeling as though this was going to be a long and complicated conversation. And it was. From when Harry first came into his inheritance to what Iara had told him that night to Kiri's arrival and what had happened in the days they had spent together, it was all a jumble of confusion. What few things the savior forgot Kiri remembered and added to the conversation.

By the time everyone got all their facts straight and all their questions answered it was two o' clock and heads were spinning.

"Whoa..." Hermione breathed out in surprise. "That is amazing. That your submissive mate would be Kiri, my little brother, against all odds is..." her voice trailed off and she shook her as if to clear it some.

"Unexpected?" Kiri offered with a grin.

"Very," Diana agreed, speaking up, "But we can talk a little bit more about this and what's going to happen in regards to the rest of the summer and such later. Right now though, darling, you look exhausted."

"That's what I said earlier on," Harry muttered under his breath, stroking Kiri's hair.

Diana smiled gently at Harry and reached over to kiss Kiri on the cheek, patting Harry's hand. "Well at least my son's mate is smart enough to know when my baby needs to rest. Why don't you go take a short nap honey?" She said to Kiri, "We'll wake you up in a couple hours to go meet Haru-san. Okay?"

"M'kay Kaa-san," Kiri nodded at the suggestion, a faint blush covering his cheeks again. "Sounds like a good idea. Can't have Haru-sensei beating the hell out of me just because I'm dead on my feet. That would be a bitch. And I wouldn't be able to walk for the next week and a half." The smaller teen winced at the thought. He clambered out of Harry's lap and pushed up to his feet.

"Harry? Come with me?" he asked, innocently. Swearing lowly and surprising Remus who was the one closet to him and the only person to hear the foul language, Harry stood as well and followed his submissive up the stairs and into his room.

Once the door was shut and the room sufficiently silenced Kiri folded himself gracefully onto the edge of the bed, smoothing a hand over the black comforter. Slim fingers tapped against one black clad thigh in a slow steady rhythm. Harry thought that it sounded eerily like the drum roll one would hear at an execution in the 16th century. It didn't make him feel any better about the upcoming talk they were about to have.

The two were silent for a time: one sitting and struggling to remain level-headed and one standing, waiting in worry for the other's explosion. "So...Harry James Potter?" Kiri asked, deceptively calm when posing the question of Harry's name. Harry winced. '_That can't be good'_ he thought, seeing the fire in the teen's eyes.

"Er...yes that would be my...name. My Full name that is." The delicate boy hummed in acknowledgment and continued the drumming of his fingers, looking thoughtful suddenly instead of angry as he had first been when Harry's name had been revealed by his sister and just moments ago.

"Interesting that is," Kiri mused quietly, still tapping, "I'm the mate of one of the most famous wizards ever. And not just any wizard but the 'boy-who-just-refuses-to-die-and-has-a-ridiculously-hyphenated-name'. This couldn't be any more unbelievable than if were Kami-sama.....Why didn't you tell me who you were? I mean, who you _really_ were, not an abbreviated version of your first name."

Harry thought seriously for awhile, contemplating his answer to the inquiry. When Kiri began to fidget impatiently though he began to speak in slow halting tones. "I...can't really...say...for sure...why I didn't...tell you...my actual name..." The wizard seemed to measure his words before saying them.

"But...maybe I think...one of the reasons...is that...i...well, that I was tired...of being known as...Harry Potter and not just...Harry."

Kiri tilted his head to the side cutely with a questioning expression on his face. "What do you mean by that?"

"Just...some things that happened in Surrey with the Dursleys-"

"Foul lot of pigs those bitches are," Kiri hissed through his teeth before blushing and going quiet.

Harry smiled hesitantly and continued on. "Well...like I said just some...things...in Surrey...and also...in the Wizarding World...everyone expects me to be something different than what I am. Everyone knows me by the scar on my forehead and start treating me...differently. Falling at my feet to worship my in one second...and revile me in the next."

"You...I know you wouldn't do that," he said quietly when he saw the wounded look on Kiri's face, "But...you...just felt...different from muggles and I think that subconsciously I was scared that you would do that too if you knew who I was and you were a wizard and that was why you felt different. After I figured out that you weren't like that in any way, shape, or form, I just...guess I just generally forgot to tell you I suppose."

Harry abruptly stopped talking and keenly observed Kiri's reaction to his words. The teen definitely didn't seem mad, instead keeping the thoughtful look he'd had as the discussion started.

"Hmm..." The low thrumming of Kiri's fingers against cloth stopped and he nodded once to himself, making an internal decision in the snap of a second. "Alright, I can accept that. But if you do something even remotely similar to this again," he glared menacingly in warning, "and I'll send you to hell in a hand basket, gift wrapped and all."

Harry had the sense to agree with his mate and held his hands up in surrender.

"Good." Kiri smiled then, and motioned for him to sit on the bed. Once the wizard was in a comfortable position on the mattress, cross-legged and broad back against the headboard, the boy plodded over and curled up in his lap, much like a cat would and fell asleep. With a smile Harry leaned back even more and easily removed the silencing spells in time to hear a soft knock on the door. Probing lightly with his magic, he found that the presence outside was Hermione and flicked two fingers, opening the door for the witch.

Hermione crept in silently and headed over to the cherry wood dresser without a word, pulling out the last drawer and removing a set of black sweat pants and plain white shirt from it. Then, she set them at the end of the bed. Harry raised an eyebrow curiously at her.

"Kiri has a spar at six with Haru-san. We leave at four and it's three now. We'll wake him up at 3:45, go downstairs and he'll flight us to Japan. Kiri gets dressed at the dojo and does his thing. When it's all said and done we go home. That's how it works." Hermione smiled peaceably and crashed down on the bed.

"Why do you leave two hours before the spar starts?" Harry fixed his friend with a wondering gaze.

"Well," the girl shrugged, "it's just what we do, ever since Kiri started his lessons back up five years ago. We go about two hours early, little brother changes into his clothes, stretches, runs laps around the compound with Zeik, stretches again and by that time he only has ten minutes before Haru-san begins the match. Mum and Dad and I don't understand it," Hermione shrugged once more, "but it's how they've always done things so it's how we do them for Kiri."

Harry nodded his understanding and chatted with Hermione for a bit longer. Before either friend knew it the time had come to wake Kiri up and the brunette pushed lazily off the bed. "Make sure he gets up in time to leave," she reminded on her way out.

"I'm going to get my shoes on. Also Harry, just as a warning," Hermione smiled brightly, "You break my baby brother's heart and I'll castrate you, cut open your stomach, rip out your entrails and hang you upside down by your toes from the Great Hall's ceiling." Then, her lissome form slipped out the door.

Harry blinked once, twice, three times and shook his head slowly, partly in horror and partly in morbid amusement. _'Bloody insane witch,' _he smiled fondly, _Brilliant girl but bloody insane all the same.' _

He reached out a hand and placed it on the sleeping male's shoulder. "Kiri. Kiri it's time to wake up. We're leaving in a couple minutes." No response. "Kiri." Still no response. "_**Kiri**_!!" Not even a flinch. Harry groaned and let his head fwap back against the head board. "Wish I had a glass of water with me," he murmured discontentedly, then lit up as an idea struk him. He took control of his magic and conjured a few ice-cubes, figuring that this would at least keep his jeans dry. Then, without further ado, he pressed three of them against the back of Kiri's neck.

Kiri's eyes flew open at the sudden cold and he let out a strangled squeal, jumping up immediately while furiously rubbing his neck which was _extremely_ sensitive. "Kami that's cold!" He scowled indignantly at Harry. "What the hell did you do that for Ry?!"

Harry lifted one shoulder carelessly. "It's 3:50. You needed to get up. I tried calling your name, even screamed it once, but it didn't do a thing so...well, ice cubes seemed like a better idea than water did." The violet eyed boy huffed and pouted.

"Whatever," Kiri sniffed, and slid off the mattress. He reached out and grasped Harry's hand to pull him out and down to where the Grangers were waiting, being sure to grab his sweats. Sirius and Remus were nowhere to be found when the two came downstairs.

"Where'd Siri and Remy go?" Harry questioned Diana as he looked around for them. Diana turned and smiled at him, shoving a water bottle towards Kiri who made a face and stuck his tongue out at the beautiful woman.

"Drink." Diana ordered sternly. "You'll need it. Mr. Black and Mr. Lupin regrettably went back to their manor. From what I could hear, Black was muttering about 'meddling old coots' he 'wanted to hex' to 'see how fond they were of bright colors once their hair was imitating a rainbow'. Lupin wasn't much better, going on about something to do with a full moon and I'm afraid that I just don't want to know. They told me to tell you sorry that they took off so quick and to go home whenever it suited you. Now, with that little message out of the way, let's Go Go Go! Or we'll be late for the first time since you've started training with Haru-san." The last part she directed towards her son, who nodded once.

"M'kay Kaa-san," he replied and slowly the room all five were in started to fade away. Kiri was looking quite smug about something and Harry couldn't resist asking,

"What's got you so happy?"

Kiri smirked brightly and Harry had the odd feeling that that look meant something distinctly horrible was about to happen. To him. "I'm ecstatic. I get to go back to my training. I've missed it and this is the first spar of the summer that Mai's actually coming to see. She usually doesn't go with us. And," he added with an impish smile, "You get to meet Haru-sensei."

"And that makes you so joyfully smug why?" The scenery began to melt into a different one entirely, tile being replaced by wood and the kitchen by a wide open space. Soon it was recognizable as the dojo Kiri frequented.

Again, Kiri gave him a mischievous smile. "Because Haru-sensei detests any of his pupils missing classes. And you made miss two have fun explaining that to him!"

Harry suddenly took not of four unfamiliar pairs of eyes watching him with a hawk-like intensity and idly wondered what he had gotten himself into.

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**So this chapter is finished! Harry has met lovely Kiri's parents and sister (who he acutally already knew? how many of you figured out from the first three chappies that Hermione was Kiri's sister?) and now the immediate family knows all about the mate thing and Harry being an Elementara Aripi Shifter. Next time you get to meet Haru-sensei...who is only semi important. Now.....REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW PLEASE!!!!! it would make me uber happy to know what people think of my story!! **

**also you get to pick if you tell me your answer to this question in a review. *hinthint* how do you want ron to be in this? i'm torn so i'm asking your opinion. here are you're options.**

**A.) Ron is good through the entire story**

**B.) Ron is bad through the entire story**

**C.) Ron is an ass in the beginning but gets better as time goes on or**

**D.) Ron is not a main character and ends up being shipped to some obscure place or dies**

**tell me please what you think!!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: I'm baaack! And so sorry for not updating sooner but I've been sick alot lately and I also got serious writer's block for this fic so....yeah, it took me awhile to get my inspiration back. Stupid muses went on vacation, aren't ever around when i actually need them to be. Now, here is chapter five posted for you. Enjoy (hopefully).**

**You must open your eyes to see, open your mouth to speak, and open your ears to hear....why is it so hard to believe that you must open your heart before you can feel?- Unknown but it's an awesome quote all the same**

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Chapter 5

Harry twitched slightly under the scrutiny he was being subjected to. "Er....hi?" He offered and was surprised when he felt the hostility drop down a few notches in amusement at his awkward and unsure greeting. Kiri giggled quietly, but when the eyes turned to him he became aware of how closely Harry was holding him and shuffled from his side.

He bowed lowly before one of the people in front of him. The man looked similar to the one Harry had seen in Hermione's home videos and pieced together the fact that he was probably Kiri's teacher.

"Haru-sensei." The purple haired teen was polite and formal when greeting the man, Haru, but there was a soft sort of affection when he did so that anyone could hear if they were really listening. Harry wondered briefly about that, if the relationship between them was closer than student and teacher, and resolved to ask his mate about it at a later date.

"Kiri-san. It's good to see you. You were not in attendance last practice. I trust you had a good reason?" Haru asked, narrowing dark chestnut eyes. Flushing, Kiri looked down at the clean wooden flooring, fidgeting slightly and scooting further away from Harry and closer towards a blonde haired male, who had a beaming grin on his face and a mischievous twinkle in baby blue eyes.

The other boy, bigger but not by much than Kiri, whispered conspiratorially to the girl standing beside him, who had long black hair and pretty pale pink eyes. With a nod, the two simultaneously spoke, their voices ringing out in the nervous silence and pointed fingers at the black haired shifter.

"It was his fault our Kiri wasn't here!" They cried, faces solemn. Harry growled low at hearing them say 'our Kiri' but when his possessive instincts cleared, and it had only lasted a moment this time, Harry realized something and hid a laugh. He could admit to himself that he almost might have believed that the unusual teenagers, on the girl's part at least with those eyes of hers, were actually upset but he'd had years of perfecting the of reading people. With Severus Snape, Lucius Malfoy, and Draco Malfoy's constant presence he'd learned how to detect even the smallest nuances in facial expressions.

Many a time, it had saved him from an unpleasant afternoon of scrubbing cauldrons in the dungeons when his potions professor was in a bad mood.

It was this particular skill that told him that the two were only pretending to feel that way for amusement, as the faint gleam of laughter in pink and blue orbs seemed to indicate. Haru raised an eyebrow questioningly at them then returned his gaze to Kiri, who seemed relieved that the couple had said something. He was more relaxed now. "Kiri-san? Are Zeik and Nelina right? This man is the reason you found yourself unable to come?"

Abruptly, the small teen's demeanor changed, as he had finally muddled past his vague embarrassment at Harry's possessiveness. The violet eyed boy straightened up and stood firmly. "Hai, Haru-sensei. Due to...unusual...circumstances between he and I, I found that complications arising from this situation prevented me from attending practice as I normally do. As unfortunate as it was." Kiri explained in a soft voice.

His posture was betrayed nothing of his emotions but Harry's mind, utilizing the bond they had begun to form between each other- though Kiri did not take any notice of it, picked up the minute traces of disappointment he felt.

Haru nodded his head, looking saddened. He sighed and examined the petite boy in front of him. "Whatever the circumstances, I cannot allow you to participate in any sparing today. It's against the rules we set and I simply _can't_ condone it. Unfortunately." Haru turned his attention to Zeik. "This means that you can't join either as your match was going to be with Kiri-san today. My apologies, but you both know the reason." Kiri and Zeik nodded, albeit a bit sadly, and ventured to sit against the wall, while beginning to stretch their limbs out.

The two conversed quietly together as they loosened their muscles up. The blonde chattered on about the last practice they had and Kiri butted in on occasion to say something. The bond they had was obvious but it left Harry feeling nauseous and worried panicked thoughts of Kiri leaving him flitted across the planes of his mind at a rapid fire pace.

Harry felt the overwhelming urge to hit something or someone (preferably Zeik) before dragging Kiri off and letting the submissive know just _who_ he belonged to and _who_ his mate was.

His concerns had started to eclipse any reason he possessed, when the girl from earlier on, Nelina, came up behind him and hit him across the back of his head. "Ow! What the fuck was that for?!"

Nelina shrugged casually, as though she went around hitting strangers she didn't know all the time. Hell, for all he knew, she could and it was a normal occurrence for the girl. "You were giving off some wicked serious killing intent just a few seconds ago. It made the ferns wilt, you know." She lightly with a smirk playing upon her lips and gestured to the deadened plants in a corner of the spacious area.

Harry frowned at her and turned his attention back to the two boys. They finished stretching and stood up. Zeik nodded towards the benches and Kiri rolled his eyes and shook his head in reply, tilting his face to the back door. The other raised an eyebrow, a questioning look in his cobalt eyes. Kiri lifted one shoulder delicately and moved his hand in a 'so-so' fashion. He smiled when the blonde nodded and the both of them walked speedily out the door.

Harry's frown grew more pronounced and he glowered, downright vicious in his thoughts. Nelina watched him contemplatively, her pink eyes picking up on everything. "They aren't lovers you know," she commented mildly.

"They're more like brothers to each other or....i don't know, whatever familial bond that could be stronger than that. But Zeik and Ink have known each other for years and years. And more years. It's gotten to the point where they don't need words to understand what they're trying to say to say to one another. Surely, you have a bond like that? Or similar to it?"

Nelina waited for the onyx haired young man beside her to respond and when she glanced at him covertly she saw that his face had softened from the angry lines previous and his stance was more relaxed. "You do."

It was a guess, but Nelina had another one of her 'feelings', and it was telling her that the boy she was talking with understood the type of bond between Zeik and Kiri because he had a bond like that himself.

"I do," Harry replied fondly, thinking wistfully of Neville and Draco, "We're very close." He answered quietly and then fell silent. The ravenette didn't deign to say anything else and neither did the one beside her. They both sat in a peaceful silent as others milled around them- Harry, thinking and Nelina meditating.

"....Why did you call Kiri 'Ink'?" Harry asked abruptly. Startled, Nelina's eyes flew open.

"What?"

"Why did you call Kiri 'Ink'?" the shifter repeated slowly. The girl shrugged and started her stretches.

"As a joke," Nelina began to explain, maneuvering her legs into a split and pushing her chest to the ground. "I mean, when we three first became friends, we thought it would be cool to have nicknames for each other. Mind you, were only about seven at the time. Well, Zeik became Pocky and I became Bleed. Pocky because our little blonde loves the fucking stuff to death, the damn idiot, and Bleed because I have always had a disturbing fascination with blood and gore, plus I'm part vampire. It's latent so you don't have to worry." she added seeing Harry's head whip over to glance at her sharply when she said she was a part vampire.

"Nice nicknames," Harry commented dryly, "Very creative."

She shifted positions again and made another shrugging motion. "We were like, eight years old, like I said. Give us a break. Anyway, we couldn't find anything we thought fit Kiri so we just shortened his already not so long name to Kir. But a couple of years after that, he came to practice one day and had all these tattoos suddenly that we'd never seen before. Well, he seemed to really like them so...."

Nelina stood unexpectedly and pulled off her over sized sweatshirt to reveal a pale pink sports bra. "I'm sure you can see where I'm going with my story, yeah?" And when Haru impatiently beckoned her over, "That's my cure that my spar is about to get started. It was nice talking to you. I'm Nelina Valse by the way. Good to meet you."

"Harry," he returned in kind, "Likewise."

Nelina gave him a bright smile and skipped off cheerily to where Haru had set up. The two, sensei and student, bowed to each other and then Nelina had drawn a long, thin blade. It had a smooth sheen and had been honed to careful perfection, with the inscription 'Decimation', carved into it.

This prompted Haru to draw his own sword, of a slightly different styled. His was a broad sword, not the gleaming sleekness of the katana Nelina wielded. The pommel had a deep sapphire set in the grip and the light reflected sharply over the razor edges.

Hermione had stood to the side with her parents but now she stepped forwards. "The rules are simple. Any tactic goes but no serious or life threatening injuries. Break every fifteen minutes. First one to submit to loses the match. Begin." Then she danced backwards as the two lept at each other in a flurry of black hair and shining blades.

It was a riveting sight, and Harry found that even if Voldie himself had come barging in, guns blazing, he wouldn't have done anything about it. Nelina and Haru, on the other hand, he thought, would probably turn on him and rip him to shreds in a matter of minutes.

He continued to stare in rapt fascination at the violent dance between them and only stirred in his devout watching when Hermione called break for the third time and the scent of Sakura blossoms, fall winds, and sweat drew his senses towards Kiri, who had entered and was now sitting peacefully next him. Harry reached out and clasped the boy's arm, pulling him closer and nearly onto his lap with one light tug. Surprised, but not displeased it appeared, Kiri relaxed into the embrace. He smiled slightly when the savior dropped his chin onto his slight shoulder, but kept his eyes firmly on his teacher and sempai.

"Where did you go?" Harry questioned.

"Just because Zeik and I can't participate in the sparring today, doesn't mean we shouldn't not do anything to train at all. It's a wait of a practice. So we ran four laps around the perimeter and then did our cool down stretches. It's a standard procedure for all of us when someone misses a lesson and then we can spar next time we have one." Kiri replied in a whisper, flicking a stray chunk of silver out of his violet eyes.

"Oh," he said and then gaped when Nelina, in one quick move, disarmed Haru and flashed the edge of Decimation against his adams apple. When he didn't yield immediately she added more pressure insistently, cutting a thin scrape against his neck. Her eyes flashed pure white and Haru appeared to grow alarmed, submitting in the next second he took breath.

Kiri seemed to relax, and it was only then that the dominant realized the boy was tense, as the girl put the weapon away, as did the rest of the wound up room. Harry could eel the tension dissipate but he blinked in shock when, instead of stepping away, Nelina moved closer and swept her tongue in one long swipe across the cut, lapping up the blood eagerly.

"Er....Lovely?" The midnight purple eyed teen flushed at the nickname, "Why is you friend drinking your sensei's blood?"

"Sempai does tat. I'm sure by now she's announced that she's part vamp and that it's latent right? That doesn't mean, though, that she doesn't need fresh blood once in while to keep her healthy and growing. She caused the cut and Sempai considers Haru-sensei part of her 'coven' so she heals what damage she dealt with her saliva. Bleed does it with Zeik and me too."

"Right," Harry blinked once more. "I don't suppose you find this normal do you?"

Kiri glanced at him through under long lashes. "Of course I do. Why?" his mate wondered innocently.

Harry shook his head in disbelief and mild amusement. "Never mind it," he assured. Kiri gave him a weird look but didn't press the matter. In fact, he ignored Harry altogether as Nelina gave a sudden cry of distress and turned to Kiri, tears collecting in her eyes.

Her bottom lip quivered and she looked slightly hysterical. Zeik stood from the other side of the room where he had been sitting worriedly and traversed the space to where she was, gesturing Kiri over, who leaped up nimbly and skidded to a stop at Nelina's side.

He soothingly wrapped his arms around her trim waist and nuzzled her neck like a kitten would, while the blonde boy gathered both Nelina _and_ Kiri into his side, petting Nelina's hair and laying a strong but fairly small hand on the curve of the other male's back. As soon as she felt the loving contact, the young half creature started to cry.

"I can't heal Haru!" she sobbed, turning her face into Zeik's chest. "He's still hurt and it's all because of me! How could I do that to him?!"

Harry stared in surprise at the sudden tears and hysteria showed by Nelina. _What's wrong with her? She seemed fine before but now she's weeping like it's the end of the world. I don't get it. Iara? You have any explanation? _In response, Harry received a general feeling of ignorance from his guide. _Okay then. You're no help. I'll just ask someone who does know then._ He started to walk to where Hermione, Jeff and Diana were standing, talking absently as they ignored the spectacle several feet away from them.

Iara sent him a feeling of approval. She had taken to doing that for him, instead of actually speaking unless she needed to or felt like doing so. Her reason had been that Harry would need to be able to identify different emotions to deal with Kiri better, for submissives to Elementara Aripi Shifters were generally very emotional and could be very needy.

Mostly because of Constientizare Voal, which had left them feeling, for most of their lives, as though they were missing half of themselves. They wandered and waited for years till' they found their Dominant and during the first few months, there was the possibility that they would switch from loving to angry or devastated fairly often.

_Makes them sound like they're pregnant,' _Harry though absently, standing next to Hermione.

He tugged gently on one of her thick curls to catch the witch's attention. "Hmmm? Yeah, Harry?" The dark haired male quirked an eyebrow and tilted his head in the direction of the trio...which had become a foursome. Haru had joined them, one slim hand resting gently on the back of Nelina's neck and his body positioned protectively in front of Kiri and close to Zeik. "Oh that? Nelina, she's, well she's a-"

"Half vampire?" Harry interrupted. "I know."

Hermione looked taken aback for a second, before a slow smile curved her pink lips upward. "Interesting," she murmured to herself, "very interesting. But anyways, Lina is a part vamp but she's also a very soft hearted girl and she considers Haru, Zeik, and Kiri hers. As in, you know, part of her 'coven'. She's willfully injured Haru. Most times, she doesn't freak out about it, but certain days every three months, she can't use her saliva to heal. And when she can't....yeah....this," Hermione gestured with one tan hand to the group, "is the result. Kiri'll heal Haru in just a second. Just watch."

And Kiri did. Harry watched in amazement as his mate disentangled himself from the mess of limbs and stepped impossibly close to Haru. One tattoo on the right side of his neck that Harry hadn't noticed until now, a swirling faint pattern of incandescent shimmering white and pale, flickering gold so faint it was hard to see unless it was used, shone and glittered as Kiri's small hand came up to his sensei's throat and three fingers were placed gently, delicately, against his cut.

And then...water appeared beneath his fingertips and sloshed and twisted over the bloody scrape till' the skin had completely healed over. Kiri waited for two minutes afterwards before stepping back and finally dispelling the element, to where, Harry didn't know.

"There you go." Kiri smiled brightly, hidden fatigue in his eyes, but looking happier than the older boy had seen in the days they had known each other. "All patched up. See Bleed-sempai? Nothing to worry about. The water says that had I waited a few days the cut would have healed up all on it's own. Nothing serious or anything to worry about. As far as I can tell, Haru-sensei wasn't even in any pain. Right Sensei?"

Haru nodded, his stern face softening when he smiled kindly and gave a comforting squeeze to Nelina's neck, then removing his hand. "Aa. Deshi is right, Nelina. I am fine. That scratch would not have bothered me any. You shouldn't get so upset over such small things." Nelina grinned happily, leaning up on her tip toes to press a kiss to Zeik's mouth. The blonde reciprocated and Kiri let out a little cheer.

Suddenly, he began to sway and Harry's keen lavender rimmed eyes noticed that the boy's lily white skin was rapidly paling to nothing.

"Kiri?" He asked in a low voice. "What's wrong?" Everyone's attention flashed to Kiri. He was pinned to the spot with eyes watching him and flushed hotly under the intense level of scrutiny. Poor thing, he was doing that an awful lot lately. But, the red color rising in his cheeks only served to emphasize the grey pallor of his skin. "Kiri what's wrong?" he asked again, more urgently this time. He was worried.

One shoulder shrugged. "Nothing. I'm fine, Ry. Really. Just...feeling a bit off color," the petite teen muttered, steadying himself and pressing one cool hand to his forehead, exercising his control over the elements. Water, cool and refreshing, seeped into him, just below the surface of his skin to make his palm feel like an ice pack. He swayed again. Using his powers made him weaken considerably when he was ill. Kiri wouldn't admit it, not until he was on death's doorstep, but felt sick and crappy and had been for the last few days. He didn't know why.

"You look a bit off color too Lovely. If you were fine, you wouldn't be staggering back and forth like the next wind to blow would knock you right off your feet." Harry retorted sharply. He looked critically over the littler teenager. "....Come here babe. I'm going to check you for myself."

Kiri frowned at him and shook his head. Haru, Nelina, and Zeik glanced at each other, boggled, then let their eyes slide over to Harry. "Lovely...." he warned but Kiri ignored it and stubbornly folded his arms, a mulish look slipping over his pretty face. "Fine then, you obstinate little-" Harry strode over to where the small boy was and pressed his hand against the overheated flesh. "Merlin," Harry whispered, "You're burning up babe."

"What?!" Nelina and Hermione cried in unison. Nelina, being the one closest to Kiri-female wise- gently to his arm and guided the violet eyed teen to the bench next to the Grangers. Hermione sat beside him, cooing and scolding, as Diana did the same on his other side, with Jeff sitting as a silent spectator on his wife's left. Zeik and Nelina, both flopped down and leaned against his legs and feet.

Harry skillfully moved past them all and lifted Kiri up, sat down where he had been, and plopped the sick boy into his lap. The other was too tired to protest against it and merely snuggled deeper into the strong chest. "Oh Ink, how long has this been bothering you? It can't have been just today because you're much stronger than that, and calling on water- most especially to heal someone- _never_ drains you like that. Neither does running. You're our best runner, no one can beat you except' Haru-sensei."

"It doesn't? Calling on the elements I mean." when Nelina said no, and explained that summoning them usually invigorated Kiri, Harry swore. "Fucking.....Goddammit!" Kiri whimpered at the loud noise and tried to hide himself. "Sorry Lovely," Harry apologized instantly. "Tell me when you started feeling this ill? I need to know, so that we can help you get better." He stroked one hand through the messy purple and silver hair and nearly laughed when he heard the low and barely audible gasp of pleasure. "Come one babe," Harry coaxed, "Tell us. Then you can go to sleep."

"A couple days ago. I think, maybe a day after I appeared to you? It was weird. I started to feel really sick and I....I um....couldn't keep my food down. I threw it up twice and then I just stopped eating it because I thought it would be pointless since I would only sick it up anyways. But then I started feeling really really warm, like suffocatingly so, but I mostly just ignored it. But it...was worse today because I overdid it with running and trying to summon water."

"That was foolish of you Deshi," Haru spoke suddenly, popping up out of nowhere. The man held out a plate with two round white pills on it and a glass of water. Zeik, seeing his best friend happily ensconced in Harry's arms, took them and thanked Haru for the boy.

"You could have been severely injured had you actually sparred today. I had planned for it to be a specialty fight. You and Zeik are both particularly skilled at using knives, aren't you?" Haru scolded. Kiri mumbled his apologies to his teacher for his foolishness and Zeik tipped his head back and fed Kiri the medicine when he done groveling. The effect was almost immediate. The teen slumped against his dominant, eyes closed and breathing even and steady.

Everyone let out a sigh of relief, but Harry- who hadn't dealt with a sick Kiri before and therefore didn't know any better than to be more than mildly confused.

"Well," Diana said, hoisting her purse over her shoulder and gathering her composure from her previous worry and mother henning, "I think it's time we all got some dinner. Haru-san, Nelina, Zeik, is take out alright with you three?" she asked as Hermione tapped her wand twice over the blonde boy's left sneaker to make a portkey. "Grab on Harry dear. We're going back home now."

Not quite sure why the other three people were going to be with them but not really caring either, Harry stood up, swinging the light body up into his arms bridal style.

Nelina answered cheerily, "Of course, Diana-chan! You know we love British food. It's so different from what we normally get to chow down on. And you know sensei." Pink eyes rolled exaggeratedly. "He's so strict about us eating well. Ink's really going to get a dressing down when he's better for not taking more care. Isn't he, Haru-sensei?" Haru glanced once at the part vamp and nodded curtly. "Thought so." The portkey activated.

* * *

Two hours later found the seven of them- Harry, Haru, Jeff, Mione', Nelina and Zeik- out on the back porch talking calmly. Earlier on in the evening, Harry had figured out why exactly Haru Moshiba had drugged his little mate.

The boy had woken up and gotten dressed and was halfway out the door, telling Jeff patiently that, '_I'm just going for a walk Tou-san.'_ before Harry had come in, the raven haired wizard absolutely livid and practically spitting fire as he hauled Kiri's ass back up to bed.

That Kiri had tried to get up and go running three more times before Hermione came in with the sleeping pills did nothing to help his foul mood improve. And apparently, Kiri was like this all the time when he was sick.

"I'm just going to have to kick that habit right out the fucking window." He'd said grimly, brushing a stray midnight lock out of his avada kedavra green eyes and retying his ponytail. "I'm his Dom and he's _my_ Sub. It's my right, and privilege, to take care of him and he better damn well fucking believe that I'm going to, like it or not."

No one had had anything to say to that but Haru and Zeik had exchanged befuddled looks as Nelina simply grinned smugly.

Now, in the lull that followed the peaceful and inane chatter, Zeik asked the question that had been bugging him since seeing the raven haired young man. "Who in the hell are you?" Green orbs, shaded lightly with wild lavender magic, regarded him with surprise.

"I haven't ever met you before today and I can bet that before a couple of days ago, maybe a week at the most, you never even knew Ink existed. And as far as I know, our Kiri doesn't like BDSM so what was up with the whole Dom/Sub thing you were talking about? Non of this makes any sense and not one person has bothered to give an explanation."

"Zeik, love, has it ever occurred to you that maybe, just maybe, they're mates?" Nelina asked bluntly, and then she began to giggle upon seeing Zeik's shell shocked visage.

"Oh...really, you are?" Harry nodded, an amused smirk playing over his lips. "Well, why didn't you just tell me that sooner?! I mean, really! Instead of letting me act the fool, someone could have informed me about this! Would that honestly be too much to ask? Not that I'm surprised Kir is a sub, that totally makes sense, none of ever thought it would be any other way but how you two met and became mate is....er...."

Zeik trailed off, blushing lightly when he noticed the weird look Nelina was giving him and Haru, who clearly wanted to slap him upside the head for acting like such an idiot. "Right. Sorry about that tangent. I just got a little, er, carried away."

He turned to glare at Hermione with a severe look in his deep blue eyes. "Seriously though, Mai, why didn't you tell me? I had a right to know."

"Do relax Zeik. We, that is Mum, Dad, and I, didn't even know where Kiri had gotten to until this afternoon. We've spent days looking for him since he just disappeared at, what two in the morning?, several days ago in a flash of white. Ever since, well you know what happened," Hermione swept her focus downward and traced an aimless pattern on the kitchen table, "we worry...a lot more than we used to. So....anyway, little brother showed up today and we found out what had happened. Turns out my best friend is mated to my little brother. Who'da thunk?" She laughed but Harry had immediately focused on the 'ever since, well you know what happened' part that worried him, and the three martial arts practitioners latched on to the 'my best mate' part of her words.

"BEST MATE?!"

"EVER SINCE....EVER SINCE WHAT?!"

They yelled at the same time and Hermione sighed and pressed the palms of her hands into her eyes with a groan. "The questions are never going to end are they?" Tugging on one curl, the brunette began, "Well, yes, Harry is my best mate. We've known each other since our first year at Hogwarts. Remember? I told you all about him once when you were over for dinner."

Haru hummed lowly and nodded, as if the memory was hard to grasp at the edges, like a photo faded after a long time. "I do recall you saying something about a Harry Potter. Somehow, with the way you complained about malnutrition and abuse, I figured he would be smaller and slighter. Not as muscled, nor as tall, as this man seems to be." he answered.

His brown eyes observed Harry and the way he seemed to hold himself, inherently graceful and imposing. "Are you sure, Hermione-san, that he is your age? Mayhap, he began your school late and is older than you think?" No way could the man be only seventeen. There was no fucking way.

"Actually, I'm several months younger than Mione' here. I just turned seventeen on July 31st this year."

Harry grinned, leaning back casually against his chair. Surveying Nelina, Zeik and Haru's -definitely Haru's- dumbfounded expressions the Grangers burst out laughing hysterically. While the blonde haired boy had an expressive face that loved to smile and Nelina, despite being harsh and aggressive to strangers, had an face all the more beautiful when she was happy, Haru was rather closed off from everyone but his students.

To see him so thrown off, something they'd been trying to accomplish for years, by a simple fact.....It was priceless. Then, when they finally managed to get words out past the shock, the reactions went something like this"

"Fuck are you fucking kidding me?! I'm nineteen fucking years old and I'm still not that big! You're a fucking giant!" Zeik. Eloquent as always.

"Holy....someone _must_ like Kiri _up there_ since he's got you as a mate. You're fucking gorgeous. And you're not even that much older than him. Shit, I thought you were like, twenty six or something." Nelina. Well, what can I say? She _is_ a girl.

"................" Haru. A man of many words, rest assured.

Once the fit of laughter subsided and everyone was, marginally at least, calm Hermione spoke again. "Yes, Harry is seventeen and I do mean Harry Potter." The witch gave an appraising look over her friend's body and face. "You really have grown Harry. Third year and you used to be no bigger than Kiri was then. Well," she shrugged, "it just goes to show you how much can change in four years. D'you think I've undergone any drastic changes like you and my precious baby brother have?"

"Of course." Harry nodded seriously. "You did the one thing none of use who knew you, ever suspected could be done. You....have....tamed....your hair into actually behaving. And, you finally realized that being expelled is not worse than getting killed."

Scowling, but her eyes told a different story, Hermione playfully slapped Harry's chest. "Ouch! Abuse, abuse! That's freaking abuse man! See how cruel she is?" he joked lightly.

"I feel for you dude. I do," Zeik cut a glance at Nelina, who rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"Boys," the two girls growled under their breath. The adults shared amused feelings when the females immediately beamed at each other afterwards. "Though," mused Nel, "Ink is normally an exception to that. Too adorable and _pretty_ to be a boy. And he's so sweet too! If I wasn't stuck with Blondie and ink had no mate I might just go for him myself."

"Kiri never counts!" Hermione exclaimed in mock indignation. "He is my little brother after all. And he's such a cutie too."

The teasing stopped, eventually, when Harry instinctively snarled and growled and his eyes flashed possessively as he thought about anyone taking away the delectable creature sleeping inside the house. Jeff and Diana had retreated to bed sometime during the lighthearted banter and Haru had departed back to Japan without notice, leaving a way for his pupils to come back as well. And soon, Zeik and Nelina were gone as well, just Harry and Hermione remaining outside.

"Mione'....you never did tell me what you meant when you said that, '_ever since, well, you know what happened,'_ remark. And I know it involved Kiri. Will you tell me? Please?" Harry inquired quietly, staring at his longtime best friend.

"I.....Harry, you know it isn't as simple as that. I want yo tell you what happened but....I don't think I should. I'm sure Kiri has told you....some bits about his life before but there's been a lot of shit happening that's gone on since then. Most of it-no. Not most of it, because we've had lots of good events too, but still. It's pretty nasty at times. Still is, some days. It's not my place to say anything to you about it Harry," the girl told him seriously. "It's really definitely not. So...I....all I'll reveal to you is that Kiri was kidnapped a couple of times before and that every time we got him back he was worse for wear. It started on November 17th. Now that's....that's all I am going to say on the matter. Alright? You don't ask me any more questions about this, kay'?"

"Whatever you want Hermione. Going up to bed now?" Harry wondered when he saw Hermione stand, brushing the crumbs from dinner and snacks off her shirt and shorts.

"Yeah. You should to. We have a guest room but I'll assume that you're not going to make use of it and will be staying in Kiri's room with him, correct?"

"Good guess. I'll come up with you. M'tired , I can admit. It was an eventful day. Lovely talked about his sister a great deal but it never occurred to me that it could be you. I suppose that part of that is, you never mentioned having any family other than you're mother and father. Why is that?"

"We all have our secrets Harry. Kiri...Kiri was mine. And I didn't like the thought of anyone there knowing about him, not after the first kidnapping that took place. Sides' I missed the little sweetheart way too much. If I didn't talk about him all the time, or at all, then I didn't miss his so badly because there was always something we had to do to distract me."

They stopped walking and paused in front of the brunette's door. Hermione looked at Harry, worrying her lower lip between her teeth. "Kiri will sleep all day tomorrow and after that till' he isn't sick anymore. There really won't be much for you to do and he hates it when we fuss over him when he's sleeping. Would you be interested in going somewhere tomorrow? With Nelina and Zeik and I? They're both important to him so it would be a great opportunity to get to know each other."

With a measuring look, the powerful creature nodded. "Sure thing. I'd like to know more about them. They're interesting, even without Kiri's influence." Beaming brightly, Hermione hugged Harry, then bade him good night and slipped inside her room. It didn't take him long after that to find his mate's own quarters.

He cracked open the door a tiny bit and went inside, shutting it quietly. Curled up on top of the thick midnight covers was Kiri, his oddly colored hair spilling over his face and so dark against the white of the younger boy's flesh. He was wearing a large grey sleep shirt and it was so big that it fell of of one shoulder and reached his knees to meet the long black sweats his lower half was clad in.

_'Adorable. Utterly and completely adorable,' _Harry thought, smiling softly and padding over to the bed. He carefully settled himself into a comfortable position, with Kiri drawn up against his body. A warm summer breeze drifted through the window and Harry understood why the submissive, sick as he was, wasn't _underneath_ the blankets. It was too hot for him and so he was on top of them with the window open.

Staring down at the sleeping boy cuddled protectively into his side, Harry couldn't imagine someone wanting to hurt the fiery and bouncy teen. Rage coursed through him as the mental picture of Kiri, helpless and chained, beaten and bruised, flitted unbidden into his mind. Now, he comprehended the younger's reaction when the had first met.

_'For every time they laid a hand him, I Will Make. Them. **Pay**.'_

_

* * *

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**Once again, I am asking you to please review my story! I love getting them and it's encouraging! Plus, my poll for ron's behavior will be up for the next two chapters. Here's the results so far:**

**A.) Good Ron-2**

**B.) Bad Ron- 9**

**C.) Bad but Gradually Gets Better Ron- 5**

**D.) Ron isn't there/Dead- 5  
**


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: Oh holy hell, I feel really bad about not posting for so long and then only giving you all this short little chapter in compensation. But don't worry! I'll have the next chapter out by next Friday at the latest, I promise. I even know now when I'm going to get them the hell to Hogwarts but it won't be for a few more chapters. Also, important!! I'm putting up a poll in my profile on how involved you want my other OC's. I myself am still a bit undecided so you all get to help me choose, though I warn you all now: Iara is going to be a main character- at least, somewhat a main character. She's going to be the one to teach Harry about the Bond and mating and the culture and everything else about the Shifters. She's important, so she will be around whether you all like it or not.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, there would be no end to the yaoi pairings. Are there any yaoi pairings in HP? No. So, I don't own it.  
**

**-Sometimes when I feel like killing someone, I do a little trick to calm myself down. I'll go over to the person's house and ring the doorbell. When the person comes to the door, I'm gone, but you know what I've left on the porch? A jack-o-lantern with a knife stuck in the side of its head with a note that says 'You.' After that I usually feel a lot better, and no harm done.- Jack Handy**

Chapter 6

*Harry's POV*

I stared down at the small form drawn up against my body. Kiri was still sleeping, the pills Mione' had given him doing their job and knocking him out like a light. It was actually making me worried the way he was sleeping for so long. I mean, it was just so odd to see him that still and quiet. My mate wasn't the loudest person in the world but he just had this...aura about him that made people turn and look at him twice, and granted I didn't know him as well as Nelina or Zeik or Hermione's family did, but that was the way it seemed to me. I bet that if I asked either of three of them, they'd agree with my observations.

Kiri grumbled a bit in his sleep but didn't move and I felt unnerved by the lack of movement. Over the last X days, since we'd met and spent the nights with him tight against me for comfort from the strangeness that was all around him, I'd learned that the little one rarely stays immobile during sleep.

Normally, he tosses and turns or makes little shifts in his position. Now he was just...just motionless. Like he was dead or in a soma and it put me off of ever feeding him medicine had, no matter how sicky he was.

Such a sweet face, I couldn't help thinking as I gazed at him. How it was possible to adore him so, so much in such a short amount of time I have no idea. I truly don't, but I do know that it isn't because of the mating, not all of the feelings, probably not any at all; if I remember what Iara told me correctly about how it doesn't manufacture emotions.

Not on my part at least. I actually do not know how Kiri feels about this whole situation. We've both avoided the subject, really, and I'm still really confused about, well, just about everything, truthfully. My head is still spinning days later from my birthday and the discovery of what I am.

In my opinion, I've been handling it all admirably. No fits about wanting a choice in who I'm in a relationship with, nothing about not wanting new powers, or being tied down to someone I don't even know while I was in the central figure in a nightmarish war from the pits of hell. I accepted it all without complaint.

And Kiri took it very well too, when I told him everything. Too well, is what I personally think. When he didn't scream or yell or fight it at all, just sat there _staring_ at me I was, admittedly, terrified that he had gone into shock or something equally horrible. However, as soon as it began to look like I was panicking the kid just kind of- snapped back to reality like a rubber band. Then he smiled, shyly and reservedly, and touched my face with his fingers, small and pale, like he was uncertain as to whether or not I would run away if he initiated any physical contact.

In fact, he was glad to know why he had had the 'pull' as he called it, all his life and didn't seem to mind; _'Too much,'_ my mind supplied; being a sub, saying Mione' had always teased about how if he was ever in a relationship, he would be the damned bottom.

I'm still waiting, in the back of my mind, on the edge of all my thoughts, for him to suddenly break down and yell about the unfairness of it all. My instincts say he isn't going to do that, but these aren't my...well, for lack of a better word, my 'normal'- insert eye roll here- instincts. Those help me stay alive and let me know who to trust. These area hell of a lot more fucking animalistic and don't tell me anything about anyone but Kiri. And it's incredibly hard to suppress that desire to take him and claim him so harshly he won't ever think of anyone but me.

Now, that isn't to say that I'm _going_ to _do_ that, but I can't help worrying sometimes that I'll loose it, in a manner of speaking, and then I'll loose him. I'd really rather that _didn't_ happen. I would never forgive myself if I hurt him. Fuck- Hermione would never forgive me if I hurt him. Not that I could blame her or anything. It seems to me like there's just about nothing else in this world, except maybe her parents and I'm doubtful about even them, that means as much to her as Kiri does.

Scary thought. Because when Hermione is mad, she's _mad_. And fuck, like hell I want to get on her bad side. Although, being with Kiri at all makes me wonder if I'm already on Mione's shit list. She is, without doubt, insanely protective of my little mate.

Seems like everyone he befriends is, now that I think about it. Even Haru, who gives me the distinct impression of hardly ever _liking_ people in general let alone wanting to protect them. Kiri was simply too cute, and, generally when he wasn't spitting fire or being snappy, very sweet, if a little cautious and wary at first. He made it difficult not to like him.

I shifted, feeling a little restless tonight. Probably, I'd regret not sleeping when I went out tomorrow with the others but the present, I just wanted to get up and do something, anything. Carefully, I maneuvered my body away from Kiri's, smiling slightly when I saw him clutch at his pillow and back up against the wall in replacement of me. The shirt he wore could have passed for a nightgown, if he wasn't wearing a pair of black pajama pants below it. Actually, I couldn't help being amused, those were over sized and too long as well.

Cute.

Stepping out of the room and sneaking downstairs, I opened the back door and walked into the garden out back. It wasn't very large, which wasn't surprising considering that the Grangers lived in a townhouse, but it was well kept and nicely tended to, with several different types of flowers, including Dragon Lilies. There was a bench, white and ornate metal, sitting by the fence surrounded by the pretty blooms.

I sought out a small, dry patch of grass to sit on cross legged, shrugging off the t-shirt I had on so I could feel the dry summer air on my tanned skin. A light breeze was blowing, despite that it was now one a.m, ruffling my rather long hair and flicking strands of black into my face.

The wind felt wonderful against my too hot skin and I closed my eyes to the world and night sky, sinking into a state of meditation. It was impossible for me to track time when I was like this, so before doing it, I set the watch's alarm- magic proofed- to go off at three. That gave me two hours before I would have to go back to bed.

Sounds, all sounds- the crickets chirping, the whistling of the wind, the rustling grass, the metallic plink I could hear when water dripped down onto the bench, they all dulled and faded from my ears. All I could hear now was a loud roaring noise, like when you pass through a train tunnel, before even the ground beneath wasn't there any longer and I was free falling; it was a sensation I was very familiar with by now and I opened my eyes just in time to twist in mid-air- mind?- and land nimbly on my feet. Knowing my hair was a mess of tangles at this point, I sighed and fished an elastic off of my wrist and pulled the long mess of ebony into a high ponytail.

Iara was back, sitting in the same way she had been when I first met her, _doing_ the same thing as when I first met her. The only difference was her clothes. Now she wore a loose, beaded green dress that came down to her knees- I think, it's a bit hard to judge when a person is sitting down- barefoot as per usual.

She smiled calmly when she saw me and gestured to the spot next to her, under one of the many willows that 'grew' in my mind's landscape. I dropped down onto where my-mentor, I guess she was- had pointed to, resting my spine against the weathered bark.

"Hello Childe." she said, reaching out with one hand and stroking my face in greeting. I hadn't seen her since that first night of my change and was surprised to find out how much I missed her while she was away. Projected emotions into my head wasn't the same thing.

"Hey Iara." I replied, flashing a grin at her. "Where've you been since I last saw you?" I was joking when I asked this, not wanting to butt into her personal business or anything like that. However, once I had asked, I found that I really did want to know. The read headed woman beside me shrugged and continued o trilw her crystal wans between her slim fingers. Making a quick decision, I chose to let the subject go instead of persisting. Wouldn't do me much good anyways, I don't think. Already, I could tell she was as stubborn as me when she wanted to be.

"Alright, let's try another question. How come you're in my inner mind?"

"Oh, I'm just here to check on you, Childe, that's all. I wished to know how you and your submissive are doing." Iara looked vaguely concerned underneath her light expression and I wondered what it was that had her so worried. "I...wondered...how you and the little one are getting on."

Why did she sound so hesitant when asking me that? Maybe she thought we'd be at each other's throats all the time.

"Kiri." I said suddenly, realizing that I'd never told Iara the small teen's name. "His name is Kiri. And we get along fine, better than fine, actually." Appearing relieved, Iara nodded, absentmindedly patting my arm. "Although...he got sick suddenly is sleeping now. We aren't sure what happened. One minute, he was absolutely fine, and then the next- he just about collapsed and scared the living hell out of me too."

Iara frowned, humming thoughtfully, her brow creasing. "I suppose I forgot to tell, but I had hoped it wouldn't happen to you two, Childe."

"Tell me....what?"

Again, she sighed and frowned. "when a submissive and dominant Elementară Aripi Shifter are in the beginning stages of courting and mating, the submissive's body opens itself up, in a manner of speaking, to their dom's magic, so that it can connect to them. The only problem with this process is that it leaves the submissive open to sickeness: flus, common colds, even a few of the more serious illnesses."

Iara raised her hands in a calm, placating manner when I let out a panicked, strangled noise. "Don't worry, Childe, I'm sure your Kiri will be fine. Most only catch a cold. Just a cold."

"So how," I choked out, "how long will Kiri be vulnerable like this?" Please, please not for very long.

"Until you bond, your Kiri will be a little more vulnerable. And," she added as a warning, turning sharp, dark blue eyes on me, "you cannot rush the bond between you both. It had to develop on it's own. His immune system will still work just as it normally would, only now your mate will be a bit more susceptible to being sick more often."

My voice was strained when I asked her if this opening of the body- so to say- was really necessary and she gave me an exasperated look, mingled, I think, with a little bit of horror. "Of course it's necessary, Childe! Nothing between mates during the time period before you bond is unnecessary! And I understand that you are worried but you shouldn't be. Your magic, steeped in it as the little one is, will ward off most things that come."

Relaxing once I knew that my Kiri was being taken care of, if only by magic, I nodded a single time in understanding to the regal woman next to me. We talked quietly with one another for a bit before sitting in silence for a long time, just taking in the tranquil atmosphere.

This wasn't like the silences between Kiri and I, which were affectionate and patient and comfortable and altogether very pleasant. Sometimes, we just found that, even though we were just mated and didn't know each other very well, we didn't need to talk to say something important. We let our silence say it for us and comprehended the meaning behind it perfectly.

With Iara, who I've come to see as a mentor of sorts, it was calm and peaceful and, not necessarily completely comfortable like with my little one, but neither was it uncomfortable.

-**Beeeeeeppp**-

Jerking out of my thoughts of Kiri, I glanced down at my wrist to see that it was the alarm I had set going off. I knew I needed to leave and get some sleep if I wanted to be awake and aware when Nelina and Zeik came to get me in the morning.

Hermione might be the one to get me up, for all I knew, but I wasn't sure if she was actually coming with us to wherever we're going. Standing up, I stretched my limbs, and then helped Iara up, giving her a brief hug. I sincerely was rather fond of the older Aripi. Far as I could tell, she genuinely cared and wanted to help me. "Sorry Iara, got to go now. Outside of my inner mind, it's about three in the morning, and I have things to do later on."

"Childe, it's fine. I had best be departing as well. I have duties elsewhere and arrangements that must be made." She stroked my face, again, gently and I was surprised by the motherly touch. In fact, I was so stunned by it, that when she hugged me once more and disappeared with a smile, could only stare down at her with widened green eyes.

Still, I didn't really need to be lingering in my mind's picture and I slipped into meditation easily, feeling the rush and tumble fall before I was back in the real world, aware of the sounds of the outside around me now.

"Fuck," I muttered, feeling a bit light headed this time around and stood up, aware that my foot seemed to have gone numb during my time with Iara. "Fucking brilliant." I swore, sneaking back into the house with my soaking wet t-shirt in hand.

I'm pretty sure that, considering how wet I am, it either rained heavily for a short period of time, or the sprinklers went off. To be honest, I don't know for sure which is more likely to have happened.

I made it up to Kiri's room again without incident, pleased I hadn't woken anyone up. Once in the bedroom I found my wand and cast a silent drying charm on myself so that when I got into the bed, I didn't soak Kiri and make him more sick.

He was shivering fairly badly, I noticed when I walked closer, and I picked him up gently and tucked him underneath the cover before crawling in beside.

In sleep, he smiled softly and cuddled into my side, breath whooshing out in a quiet 'Ry', even though he followed it with 'You're an idiot, even though I like you.' Another adorable quirk to my little sweetheart. He sleep talked. Sometimes it was funny as hell, I admit and I don't think he even knows he does it, which sometimes makes it even funnier.

Settling down, I propped my head up against one of the many pillows on the bed, staring at Kiri, who seemed so small and innocent in slumber.

I couldn't help being fascinated by him. His face, his smile, his eyes, his habits- the few that I had seen, his words, his voice- everything about Kiri captivated me. Had I met him before turning, and even if I was normal and he wasn't my mate, I think I still would feel this way. The bond doesn't force any feelings on him or me, for which I'm very glad.

I drifted off to sleep that way, his face n my mind, his voice in my ears, himself in my heart.

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**...I think I made the ending cheesy. Damn, I was trying to avoid that. Tell me what you think please!! I love reviews, they make me happy! Also, you can keep voiting for Ron until I post the next chapter. ;P. Remember, your options are:**

**A. Good Ron**

**B. Bad Ron**

**C. Bad then Good Ron**

**D. Ron is dead or somewhere else and not important to this ficcy at all**

**Now there's your options and in hindsight, I should have just put up a poll on my profile for this too. Oh well. PLEASE REVIEW!! XD.  
**


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: I know that I said I would have this up by Friday at the latest but my best friend from Idiana came down in a surprise visit and so I spent basically all of my weekend with her and my sisters. Which, of course, left me with just about zero free time to type this up and post it. I had it finished on Friday morning, written all nice and neat in my notebook and ready to type up when she showed up so I didn't get around to posting it until now. Really sorry about that guys, but I tried. **

**Disclaimer: The sky is blue, Blood is red, Fantasies dance inside my head, If I claimed HP heads would be rolling, Because we all know that it belongs to J. K. Rowling.**

**Just a little bit of my very very bad poetry for you all while simultaneously doing a disclaimer. Aren't I talented at multi-tasking?  
**

**Curiosity killed the cat, Satisfaction brought it back. Stupidity killed the cat. Curiosity was framed.- Unknown

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**

Chapter 7- August 5th

*Kiri's POV*

Sun. Light. Sucks. Like. Hell.

I groaned softly and turned over in bed, unable to find a comfortable position and not happy in the slightest about waking up alone. I felt hot, and cold at the same time, and everything inside of me ached horribly. It didn't take a genius to figure out why. I was sick. Again...damn. I really hated being sick. Mai and Kaa-san always drugged me with sleeping medicine every time.

I mean honestly! One time, _one time_, I decide to go for a short, quiet venture out back and now every time I get even the smallest cold they confine me to my bed. Granted, that led me to opening the gate to go to the park which led me to taking a walk which led to me being gone in the snow for four hours and ending up in the hospital with pneumonia but...damn. I really don't have a case do I?

Although, I was under that constitizia thing or whatever Ry called it so maybe that's a bit unfair.

...Which brought my thoughts right back to Harry and waking up alone and this whole...mating...thing. Since meeting him at the end of July I haven't slept or woken up alone. To do so now, without him holding me close against him was...well, it was damn good way to keep me unhappy and moping. It hasn't even been five minutes since I woke up from the fucking sun and already I missed his presence. When I said he 'felt' different to the other witches and wizards around him, I wasn't kidding. His loss beside me was impossible to miss to my senses.

Harry was like a beacon of fucking fire. He _**burned**_. He _**burned **_and flickered among his kind with a glow that sometime was so strong it hurt me a little to be around. To be around _**him**_. So wild, so fierce, so untameable. And some other wizards felt almost kinda sorta close to that heat but couldn't compare and they didn't have the underlying layers my Ry did.

Beneath the burning, he was strong and solid, a rock, and under even that he was playful and soothing, like a whirlwind of summer air. They were layers to his overall feel, just like that edge of darkness and anger was. That anger burned worse than his flame, even with how the darkness, black and soothing as well, took the edge off. And each layer to feel was clinging and merged with another and that other with another and then the layers blended, but remained separate too.

It was confusing to think about, even to myself and I understood what was going on- to some degree. I made the smart choice and turned off that path of thought. Yawning, I pulled my body out from underneath the covers, feeling like my limbs were made out of lead. The clock on my nightstand read 2:30...p.m. Where the heck was Harry?!

I scowled and clambered out of my bed and virtually crawled to the shower. Frankly, I couldn't be bothered to do much more than turn on the hot water and sit on the shower stall floor.

The water felt so good on my sore muscles- sore from running and practice yesterday and sore from my cold. Urgh. Being sick sucked even more than sunlight did. My pj's were becoming thoroughly soaked, since I hadn't bothered to undress. Too much effort.

Hugging my knees to my chest and resting my chin on them I wondered where my domin- I mean, Harry, had gone. He'd never left my side in the past six or so days, especially not before I woke up. I scolded myself mentally for becoming so dependent on someone I barely knew.

"Life sucks," I said to myself. A light laughter sounded from the doorway and my head snapped around to see Hermione hovering there, a half smile on her lips. She walked over to the stall where I was and crouched down. Her hand reached into the shower and turned off the tap, then ran her fingers through my damp violet-silver hair.

(I'm almost positive that there's no one else on earth that has dark purple hair with _silver _streaks in it _naturally_!)

Mai's touch was calming, after everything that had been going on in my life, plus getting sick on top of it all. Only, I could tell, doing an internal check, that was probably just a twenty four hour bug. Thank Kami for small miracles.

"So life sucks does it? You're not going suicidal on my, are you little brother?" Frowning, I shook my head with a whispered 'No.' Hermione, probably able to tell that I was rather upset, pulled me out of the shower stall and shoved another pair of sweats at me. "Come on, sweetheart, time to get out of those. You'll stay sick if you don't change." Mai was right, so I did, quickly. Then, I allowed myself to be led over to my bed, curling up in a corner of the bed with my head in Mione's lap. "Now then...why's life suck?"

Catching my lower lip between my teeth, I nervously chewed at it. "I...I..."

"Hmm? What is it, Kiri? Come on, luv, you can tell me."

"I...um I...I...I miss Harry." I blurted out, mortified. '_Fuck, I did not just say that! This does not calm my nerves that I'm not some needy girl just cause' I'm...submissive.' _Despite me mentally beating the crap out of myself to a bloody pulp for being so pathetic, my mouth still continued talking. Why have I suddenly lost control of my motor functions?! "The bed was cold, I was lonely, he wasn't there and why wasn't he there Mione? I don't like being alone or submissive, I want Harry back, where did he go?" Yeah. Sleeping medicine, definitely. Overly honest whenever I'm on it.

It was true though. I did miss Harry.

When I first found out about everything, I wanted to scream, wanted to throw something. It wasn't even because I was angry; I wasn't. Harry was gorgeous and kind and nice and I'd been able to see that even without knowing him. But I'd been confused, and I'd been a little upset. Why was _**I**_ the submissive, never mind that Harry was so much bigger than me. Did it mean that I was weak? That I wasn't able to properly take care of myself?! That I was pathetic and a simpering fool, doing everything my Dom wanted? I couldn't stop worrying about it. Of course, over the last few days, I'd sort of grown to understand that just because I was bottom didn't mean I wasn't as strong as I was before all of that.

Still...I wasn't sure _**how **_I was _**supposed**_ to feel about this entire 'mate' thing. It made me glad that my sister was here with me right now. Talking to her always helped me sort things out. "It might interest you to know, little one, that Harry's gone out to get to know Nelina and Zeik better. He left because I told him you'd be asleep all day and that you hate it when we hover over you when you're not conscious. He's coming back later on tonight."

I stared at Hermione. And stared. And continued. And continued. And then I flipped out. "Are you crazy woman?! They'll eat him alive! You know that, are you nutters?!" I panicked, looking up at her with widened violet eyes. "You remember what they did to last potential boyfriend I had right? Oh wait, of course you do. You helped! And...you told him I'd sleep all day just to get him out of the house, didn't you Mai? Because you knew if you didn't, Ry wouldn't leave me. What if I like being taken care of by him?" I whined slightly, pouting.

"Are you admitting to something?" She teased, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "We just want to make sure Harry (and potentials before him) would be able to protect you. Since I know Harry, and because he's my best friend, I'm not there this time. Be grateful for small miracles." Hermione stated matter of factly, carding her fingers through my hair. It seemed to be a point of fascination for her.

"So...you lied and kicked my Dominant out so that Pocky and Bleed could beat the shit out of him?!" I asked her incredulously. I didn't notice my slip of the tongue till' my sister pointed it out with a sly grin on her pretty face.

"That, and because we never get to talk anymore. I thought it would be nice to have some you and me time. I've missed you, Kiri."

"Missed you too. I wanted to call but arranging that was..."

"Nearly impossible?" Hermione suggested, smiling softly. "Yeah, I figured as much after you told us everything that had happened. We both know that if you'd had access to a phone, you would have called home as soon as possible. Given that you'd want to tell us you're okay and then to gush over Ry. And flip out over being bottom." There was that damned sly grin of Mai's that I hated. "Speaking of: did I hear you call Harry your _**Dominant**_ a little while ago. And doesn't that sound kinky?"

"What?! No!" I denied it, blushing horridly, and Hermione couldn't resist teasing me.

It was nice, talking to her again, no matter how much she poked fun at me. We used to do this all the time, before she got her Hogwarts letter and I learned to beat up anyone who picked on me in elementary school. The two of us had been abnormally close for siblings. She'd come into my room, or I'd go into hers, and we would sit with each other for hours, chatting about nothing and everything that came into heads and I did that now, again, as I hadn't since I was thirteen and discovered I liked guys.

I told my sister everything that was going on in my head: from how, when Harry called me Lovely instead of Kiri, I didn't know whether to smack him, or blush and smile- usually it was the latter- to my confusion about mates and how they (and the bond between them) worked, even my rapidly growing feelings for Harry, it all came spilling out, one worry or problem after another and Hermione just listened to it all, the same as she always had.

And then, hours later when I had ranted and cried, and yelled myself hoarse and was tired as hell, Mione just laughed gently and maneuvered ourselves under the thick black duvet. Then she kissed me on the forehead, and said "Seems like you have a lot on your mind, luv."

She sang me to sleep, like she used to whenever I had a nightmare, but before I succumbed, feeling much better than I had waking up, I thought I heard someone else come into the room and kiss me.

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**So that's the end of first person POV. It's a bitch to write, really it is. The tenses always screw me over. And keep in mind that if Kiri seems OOC (how can an OC be OOC anyways) or whiny and bratty, that he's sick and annoyed and just rather unhappy over all. Also, I still have the poll for what I should do with my three other beloved OCs in my profile. So far, them as minor side characters is winning. And now, for your viewing pleasure, the Ron poll. **

**A. Good Ron**

**B. Bad Ron**

**C. Bad then Good Ron**

**D. Ron is dead or somewhere else and not important to this ficcy at all**

**Yeah, I know I said that I would end it this chapter, but I decided to ignore myself and leave it up till chapter nine. Aren't I nice? And also, because this is mandatory for me to say: PLEASE REVIEW! I love hearing your thoughts and opinions on this story and if there's anything I need to improve, I'd love to know. Thank ya, and have a nice day...night...whatever time it is when you're reading this, if you bothered to at all. XD.  
**


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: *creeps out from behind bedroom door* Erm...I don't really have an excuse for not updating except that I just became really uninspired and couldn't string together four words decently to make a sentence. I have eight different versions of this chapter that just completely suck and I think I'll probably burn those at some point. XD. So I am soooooo sorry and I promise that it will never ever ever ever take me a year to update again because that just depresses me. On the Ron front, I have decided that he is going to be...*drumrolls* pretty much good, although he will have his moments of complete douchebaggery, as any Ron must. Sorry guys who wanted him to be evil (and that was pretty much most of you). And now, because I am sure you're all just completely sick of my yammering, I present chapter 8. **

**Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, I would have a fuckload of money. They would also all be gay. The Dursleys would be flayed alive by Sirius and Remus. And also, Tonks and Remus would have way more air time. So, clearly, I am not the owner or J. K. Rowling. *cries***

**-****The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a crib house whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary. - Unknown**

**Chapter 8**

Warm sunlight streamed through the bedroom windows, curtains pulled wide open and letting in all the light. Kiri groaned, turning his face into the smooth cotton of his pillow to avoid the sunlight waking him up further. Or he meant to. But underneath him he only felt warm skin and the steady sound of a heartbeat, not fabric and fluff.

"What?"

Blearily, Kiri opened his eyes, squinting hazily to make out the bright red blare of the numbers of his alarm clock informing him that it was only 7:43 in the morning. He groaned again, purple eyes slid over tan, tattooed skin and he realized belatedly that he was sleeping curled up on top of Harry. He was still slumbering, eyes closed, wide pink mouth parted as he breathed quietly. Kiri didn't think the morning sun was fazing his Dom in the least.

Kiri wondered when he'd slipped into bed. Certainly he hadn't been there when Kiri had crawled under the covers earlier that night and he hadn't noticed anything while he was sleeping either, nothing jostling him enough to rouse him-and Kiri was usually a fairly light sleeper. Dark wings- all red and black, protruding from Harry's back-spread out against the bed sheets. One was arched carefully around Kiri, so big that it was like Kiri was encased in a cocoon. Whenever Kiri tried to moving the wing moved with him, keeping him firmly trapped against Harry's side.

He rolled his eyes and let his head drop back, preparing to be stuck in this position for a while. Scanning the room for something to stare at, Kiri's gaze rested on the dream-catcher above his head. It was a deep ruby red and metallic silver, strands of orange and yellow yarn appearing in the midst of the scarlet. The feathers on the end of the strings looked out of place, a fluffy shade of pale brown. Bringing up a hand, Kiri trailed his fingertips over the ends of Harry's own feathers, which were dark and sleek, ebony tipped in crimson, thinking they would've suited the catcher far better.

"They're so beautiful," he murmured quietly, doe-eyed and wondering as he stroked the soft downy.

"I certainly think so." Kiri jumped in surprise when Harry spoke up groggily, effervescent green eyes half-lidded and hardly aware, and instantly dropped his hand to his side uncomfortably.

"When did you wake up? I know it wasn't me; you can sleep like the fucking dead."

Harry laughed, voice husky with sleep, and it vibrated deeply in the cavity of his chest where Kiri rested his head. Hands, hot and big, threaded through the thick mess of silver-violet strands, pulling until Kiri allowed Harry to tip his face upwards, neck strained and arched so that the position was less awkward. "What?" Kiri blinked. Harry laughed again, the sound wrapping around him and settling deep in Kiri's bones. "Seriously, Ry, what?"

"Nothing, Lovely, noting." Harry smiled, leaning down and kissing his mate's forehead, silky sable hair slipping over the broad, muscular shoulders. "I just woke up, that's all. Early too, it's only quarter past eight." Kiri was surprised by this, attempting to look at alarm clock. The hands still buried in his hair, stroking, hindered his efforts somewhat but Kiri continued to squirm and Harry loosened his hold so that the younger teen could see the time.

"Huh. I woke up at, like, 7:40 but I could've sworn that wasn't a half hour ago."

Harry looked concerned as soon as the words left Kiri's mouth, sitting up quickly. His legs opened to shift the purple haired boy between them and palms spun his around fast, gripping Kiri's biceps tight. Stunned Kiri gaped at Harry in confusion, the bafflement he felt scrawled across his pretty face. He didn't understand why Harry looked so panicked, so frantic. Then he thought over his words, how similar they sounded to back when he was still losing time in huge increments a few weeks ago and how they could be misconstrued.

"Oh, Kami, that's not what I meant Ry." Kiri rushed to assure Harry, linking the fingers of their left hands together. "I swear that was so not what I meant. It's not like when I couldn't remember or anything because I can and it doesn't feel same at all so you _**really don't**_ need to worry. In any way, shape, or form. Also, calm down. Way," Kiri pried of the death grip his mate's finger had encased him in, "way down."

His reluctance no secret, the Aripi let go. "Thank Merlin." His head lulled forward and the tender pads of Kiri's thumbs smoother under his eyes. The tan skin underneath was bruised and shadowed purple from the small amounts of rest Harry had been getting lately, but he was still as handsome as he ever was, even this exhausted. Every night, Iara had been dragging him through the ringer by making Harry hone his control over the newer powers he'd acquired in his mental scape and the toll it was taking was obvious.

"You are far too strung out Ry." The teen pointed out with concern, biting his bright pink bottom lip. His eyes, so pretty a violet, were wide with unease at the lines of tension still covering Harry like a blanket, though the news that Kiri wasn't loosing time had calmed him a great deal.

"Mmph. I know, Lovely, I know. But I _**was**_ the one to ask Iara for this. Bloody fuck, I practically had to beg the woman to agree to it." Harry said. He squeezed the hand held in his. "I can't just ask her to tone it down now."

A smacking sound, then a hissed, 'Bloody hell.' "Fuck that, you can't ask her to take it down a notch. I bet you twenty pounds she's been going this fierce so that you learn a fucking lesson you stupid bastard. She'll be smug and proud you realized there are these nifty things called 'limits.' Can't ask her to tone it down my ass, of all the dub…" Kiri snapped under his breath, glaring holes into his Dom's skull. Harry smiled affectionately, unable to help himself. Kiri just looked adorable, straddling his legs, plush mouth twisted and eyes glowing bright with annoyance.

He gave Kiri an unexpected peck on the lips, sweet and chaste. Also disgusting, because neither had brushed their teeth and the morning breath was terribly. Harry could honestly not care any less than he did. He pulled back, peppering his Sub's face with kisses. Kiri snickered, bell like, catching Harry's mouth occasionally and then pushed gently against Harry's chest. "If I'm not going back to sleep," he said, "then you need to let me go shower so that I can show up in your kitchen to eat. I want food." Harry made a face at that, not one for eating so early. Just the thought of it made his stomach roll.

"Fine." Harry sighed, sitting back as Kiri slipped off the edge of the bed with grace coloring every motion. "You know that you don't need to wash up before going downstairs though, right?"

Kiri said, huffily, "Unlike you, I enjoy being clean and not looking like a badly raised zombie in front of people. Or stinking like a trash heap, for that matter."

Harry grinned, holding up his hands in surrender and watching the sixteen year old until he saw the door to the adjoining bathroom close with a barely audible click. The sun was bright in the dark room, making the silver and glass accents glint bright. The walls were black and the furniture starkly white and silver. Only the scarlet silky covers and dream-catcher were colorful in the Aripi's bedroom, disregarding the photos and clothes hung up, scattered about everywhere. Three windows let in copious waves of light, two on the wall opposite the door and one over the foot of the king sized, four poster bed.

Only a week ago, harry had received a letter with a request for he, Hermione, and Kiri to spend the rest of the summer at Black Manor, with Sirius and Remus. Draco, Ron, and Neville had arrived a few days after they did. So far, Kiri had been avoiding them like the plague and it may or may not have been his intention to leave the blinds open so that his mate would get up early so that he might or might not encounter Draco in the kitchen because the Slytherin always got up early, which would in turn spark him meeting Ron and Neville.

But that was only if that were Harry's intention when he forgot to close the blinds. Which it wasn't.

Kiri took long showers and Harry was tempted to simply drift back to bed without the tiny, adorable boy around to keep his attention. It wasn't as though the covers weren't soft and inviting; if he shut the curtains- black and heavy- the room would be plunged back into darkness. Settling back onto the firm mattress, he let his eyes slide shut, tired and weary feeling overtaking him. It really had been a very long couple of weeks with Iara's training battering his mind and body. His breath slowed again. It was like he was on the precipice of unconsciousness but he couldn't quite achieve it, mind too busy racing, churning thoughts and pulling up different scenarios of how Draco and Kiri meeting could go.

Unreasonably, they all ended in tears. The only variable that differed was whether it was Draco or Kiri.

* * *

Kiri shivered as he stepped out of the _**huge**_ shower Harry had in his bathroom, messy hair dripping and obscuring his vision. Wide purple irises blinked rapidly so that he could somewhat see between the wet strands. His clothes he'd placed neatly on the toilet seat, right by the towel rack, and Kiri was quick to dry off, nimble fingers finding the red Kanji tattoo on his neck that was a symbol for fire with practiced ease. Instantly Kiri was warmer, tiny almost indiscernible sparks licking over his ivory skin.

His hair was still oozing wet droplets, however, when the teen dispelled the fire. Kiri made a face- nose scrunching, lips pouting- as ice cold trickles of water slid down his neck and collarbone, snatching up one of the fluffy towels and rubbing it vigorously over his head before yanking on the torn black sweats and ripped gray shirt three sizes too big for him. The neckline, like many of Kiri's shirts, was so large it was slipping off his slender shoulder. It wasn't even worth Kiri's time to push it back into place anymore.

He padded barefoot out of the bathroom. A sweet, loving smile tugged at his pink mouth when Kiri's eyes alit on the Aripi, the striking face slack and the curtains closed tight. A small light blossomed around Kiri's palm, because the room really was pitch black now. _'I suppose that's the magic working,'_ Kiri thought, fascinated. Before this summer, he hadn't actually ever seen Wizards magic in action- that he cared to remember anyway. His old family…well, that was something the purple haired teen didn't like contemplating.

Navigating around the mess on the floor, Kiri picked up the roll of black tape he used to prevent his knuckles from splitting. Looping the tape around his hands and then up a little farther, Kiri also hefted a pad of paper into the air, scrawling a short note on it in blue ink. Then the teen folded it in half, leaving it on top of the truck stowed next to bed as a makeshift dresser, and slunk out the door. It shut behind Kiri with a soft 'snickt.'

Now, he just needed to find his way to the kitchen.

Black Manor was ten kinds of huge. It was the first thing Kiri had noticed when they arrived there, Hermione clinging to Harry's arm and exclaiming at the sheer size. Even after all the years she spent knowing Harry- and make no mistake, the shifter was one of her best friends in the world- the brunette had never been to the Manor. Her summers, to be frank, Hermione preferred to spend at home after nearly a year of not seeing her parents or little brother, though she did visit her friends for a couple of weeks at the end of vacation, right around the time that Kiri normally disappeared to an obscure area of Japan with Zeik, Nelina, and Haru-sensei. She hadn't thought the Manor would be so…big. It must have been the size of at least two football fields. Hermione couldn't think of a single place that she had read about that was that enormous, excepting Hogwarts. And Hermione knew of many historical landmarks and building, history being one of her favorite subjects if you excepted the Hogwarts curriculum.

It was appallingly easy to get lost in the maze of corridors and rooms. Harry had spent almost an hour explaining to the siblings how to navigate the mansion. Of course, Kiri had been a little spacey at the time (gaping in surprise, mostly, at the moving portraits and the house elf that popped in to take their bags but also trying not to jump Harry when he sprawled lazily out on one of the large black leather chairs) and promptly got lost trying to find the bathroom.

Thank Kami-sama for the Constientizare that linked Harry to him. Kiri actually was almost glad now that it existed, even if sometimes he was annoyed by it.

Kiri turned left at the end of the opulently decorated hallway, coming upon a long set of gilded stairs. He debated walking down then like a normal human being or sliding down the banister, both options appealing in their own way. Walking steps was good exercise, or so Haru-sensei seemed to insist. "Hum…" Kiri tilted his head thoughtfully, mouth drawn into a little moue. "Normal person way…banister…Flighting there because I have dismal sense of direction…" Fingers tapping a count of 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2 on his hip, Kiri made a snap decision and flipped showily over the gold railing of the staircase. He landed skillfully on the balls of his bare feet, rolling his entire body to move with the shock of the landing.

Ten minutes later, the purple-silver streaked haired ten found the kitchen and wondered idly while he sat on the counter waiting for the toast to pop up. "**_Kotoba no nai sekai de bokura wa ai wo kataru, Itsuka kimi ni todoku made, Kizu darake no kainade daki yoseta kuchibiru no, Haritsumeta negai tokashitakute_**…" Kiri sang softly, fidgeting. The small boy brought his knee up to his chest, waiting for his toast impatiently when an unexpected voice came out of nowhere, laced with suspicion and aggression.

"Who the bloody hell are you? And how did you get into the Manor?"

Ron Weasley stood there, a dark, wary look on his face. Kiri took a moment to reflect that avoiding Harry's friends so thoroughly that they didn't even realize he was staying in the Manor was a bad idea- because of course Harry wanted to explain everything in person, not in a letter- especially when they were all in the middle of a vicious war.

When he didn't answer Ron's question, just sat there looking terrified and stunned and very, very anxious, the red head panicked. He shot off a mild cutting curse and it sliced along Kiri's pretty face, causing him to turn his cheek to the opposite side from the sharp impact. A small noise tore itself from his throat, distressed, high pitched. The sub fumbled with the cloth at his back and was immeasurably grateful when he touched the bird tattoo and vanished in a whirlwind, there one second and gone in the next.

And, because it was Harry's famous luck kicking in, the sable haired Aripi stumbled in at that exact moment. The toast popped, falling onto a blood spattered counter.

... "Ron. What the fuck did you do?"

* * *

A whirlwind deposited Kiri exactly where he wanted to be: hidden and safe, somewhere deep beneath the bowels of Black Manor. Kiri pushed, hard, with his hands, inducing a little mini earthquake and carving out a small hollowed alcove in the dirt, where he scrabbled inside of it and shut his eyes tight. Fear burned his blood; it left Kiri sick. Kiri's stomach heaved, he clapped one hand over his mouth, and then he fell to his knees and vomited harshly. Bringing up one delicate palm, the teen wiped his lips free of the remaining string of bile, making a disgusted face.

The smell was horrid, acrid in his nose and completely foul. Kiri collapsed backwards when he was sure there was nothing else that could come up, his slender back slamming into a wall of packed earth.

The heart rate of a normal human spiked when they were scared but it came back down once the fear receded or they calmed down themselves after the cause inducing the fear was gone. Kiri, in theme with the uniqueness of his looks and…abilities…, did not work in that way. His heart rate just kept climbing until something forced him to calm down or he was moving fast. It just beat the way a hummingbird's wings did, entirely too quickly, and more often than not, Kiri passed out and didn't recover for hours. And it only happened if he was completely terrified. If he wasn't out of his mind scared, his heart beat slow and steady, however much he worked out or even when adrenaline pumped through his veins.

He could feel the erratic thumping of the organ beneath thin, fragile skin.

Hands clenched tightly over folded elbows, the small thing body curled in on itself, a head dropped to rest against the tops of imperceptibly quivering knees. Arms were wrapped underneath bent thighs. Shuddering breaths puffed between Kiri's mouth, uneven and short; hyperventilating.

"Fuck." Kiri whispered in the dark. The earth around him was damp and cold, seeping it chill into his bones. "Fuck. Fuck, fuck, _**fuck**_. I have to calm down. I can't pass out, Mai will be so mad." The mantra the tiny male chanted quietly didn't help. His heart started to speed up marginally.

Tears squeezed out from beneath scrunched eyelids and slid silently down pale, porcelain cheeks. "No, no, no, not again." Sobs began to rack Kiri's slim form and the cold, earthy walls shook with him. From underneath his shirt, soaked with tears, a pale green light in the outline of a kanji glowed. He shook harder, the fright growing, now not only because of his encounter with Ron but also because he didn't want this to happen again. He was so sick of it, the shaking and the crying and everything falling to pieces around him when he could do nothing to stop it.

The walls started to collapse and the green outline of the tattoo expanded to a shining orb surrounding Kiri's body. And when the shaking grew more violent and Kiri finally passed out, unconscious, it stayed as the makeshift hollow in the ground fell back into its natural place, crumpling from the form it had been forced into.

* * *

Harry's explosion at Ron was so loud, so furious, that at first everyone (who had all been woken up by the screaming) thought the vibrations under their feet were just because the Aripi was yelling at such a high volume. Of course, when he finally stopped long enough to take a breath and reign in his magic and the Manor was still moving it raised some questions and the entire group's suspicions but for Hermione, who drained of color so completely that she started to resemble Nearly Headless Nick's pallor and swayed a bit.

"Oh Merlin, it's Kiri." She was horrified. Her hands fluttered nervously. "Merlin, Harry! It's Kiri, I know where he is!"

Everything stopped at the brunette witch's upset declaration. Harry crossed to Hermione in two steps, grabbing her arms desperately. "What the fuck are you talking about Mione? How do you know what's going on and- this is important- where the hell is my Sub?" Emotions rose high in Harry, the edge of darkness in him that caused Kiri so much grief at times becoming larger and blacker than pitch. In his anxiety, the magnificent wings sprang from his back with a huge gust of air, blowing Hermione's long curls back and knocking Sirius, Remus, Draco, Neville and Ron back and into the walls.

His magic lashed like a cracking whip around Harry, forming bands like steel around his muscular forearms and biceps and across his pecs and abs. it raised any and all objects not firmly attached to the floor with a sticking charm, tossing them aggressively. None of them could remember ever seeing Harry this angry before, not with the exception of his face offs with Voldemort and the next worse thing- Dumbledore and Bellatrix.

It was clear that the tight grip of Harry's hands was going to mark the tan skin with bruises if he didn't let go soon and as soon as he calmed down Harry was going to regret it. Ron moved to try and talk to Harry, to tell him to let go of Hermione before she was hurt, but thankfully Remus had the good sense to clamp his hand over the Weasely's mouth before he did any more damage. Hermione herself had gotten past the shock of knowing what was happening to her little brother and glared fiercely at her best friend, hands on hips in a very Molly-like impression.

"Harry James Potter, calm down and stop with this nonsense. I know you're mad, I am too! He's _**my**_ brother and I've known him and his traumas far longer but it isn't as though your temper tantrum is doing him any bloody good!"

Indignant words pierced the hazy red veil pulled over emerald green eyes. Properly chastened and acknowledging how right Hermione was, Harry stepped back a few paces to give her some breathing room. His wings, jet black and fire red, hunched defensively around his broad shoulders, the smooth skin stretched tight over bunched muscle and tendon. All the furniture in the room dropped onto the floor with a clattering thud and Harry collapsed onto a bar stool, head cradled in his palms as long, sable hair slipped like a curtain to hide the exotic features. "_**I'm sorry**_."

Hermione sidled up beside him, wrapping her arms around his waist and hugging him unyieldingly, thin violinist fingers curled around his neck. Harry turned his face into Hermione's neck, squeezing her back, lacing his hands around her hips and breathing in and out slowly. The comfort of another person who could one day love her brother like she did made Hermione cling a little tighter. She sniffled and leaned into Harry's strength, a few isolated tears dripping from her chocolate brown eyes. "I'm sorry Mione. I just…I don't even know. There was blood on the counter, Kiri's signature was there and Ron had his wand out, Lovely nowhere to be found…"He held her against him and she soothed quietly in a choked voice. Eventually, Harry was sedate enough to let her go.

She kissed his cheek, gestured for everyone to sit down and perched on the island. Harry's palms ran a soothing path up and down her tensed back while her fingers were clenched tightly in the fabric of her pants.

"So…where is the kid?" Sirius asked, curious and concerned, flicking back a stripe of short black hair. "And is he gonna be okay? Shorty seemed a bit…fragile…sometimes."

He had spent a period of several hours with Kiri in the early mornings and late nights when the boy was running or drilling himself on the katas he had learned up to his most recent practice. When Sirius actually asked him about it, the small teen had lit up like a Christmas tree, mouth working at a mile a minute trying to convey just what he was doing and how awesome his sensei was. From then on, Sirius had joined Kiri in the mornings- when he was up anyway, though Kiri hadn't actually showed him any of his offensive skills, if he had them. So even though Sirius's original intent was to check that this kid was good enough for his son, it morphed into genuinely enjoying the time spent together. A good thing, since the problems disliking him could have raised was just entirely unpleasant to contemplate.

Simultaneously, Harry and Hermione scoffed; Harry actually started laughing. Hermione rolled her eyes, watery but exasperated as always. "He's _**not**_ fragile. Or well," Hermione amended after a paused moment, "not usually anyway. He could kick all our arses if he wanted and he's strong, don't consider him otherwise. But it's been a very long month or so for him, especially since we've come to the Manor and frankly, when Kiri gets high strung…he tends to get a bit more delicate. But that isn't the point. The point is he- this _**has**_ happened before, it isn't the end of the world, only…it might," she glanced covertly at the Aripi, "it might set you back some."

Harry paled. He'd worked so hard to get Kiri to trust him, to not flinch when he touched the boy- even gently- without warning. Sometimes, Harry would wake up and Kiri would be gone, curled up around Hermione in her room or on the floor of his. It helped, Harry knew, that Hermione was his best friend, that he was her best friend, and that she told him constantly about Harry and Ron, the adventures and dangers they faced together. Made it easier to put faith in the Aripi and their bond with each other. But that was when they were together every day, all the time, and Kiri didn't have the chance to doubt him much.

But…even though Hermione was looking for ways that Kiri would be able to come to Hogwarts, it still would keep them apart while classes were going on, unless there was a something that would allow him to attend all of Harry or Hermione's classes.

Hogwarts started in a week and they still hadn't found anything permitting his Sub to come to the school…to be set back when they were barely anywhere in the grand scheme of things now…

Protests, dread, welled up in Harry's throat. His old fears of rejection kindled inside of him. The fond was fierce in its reaction to the news of losing Kiri, any part of him that had been given, including his trust, lighting up like a burning blaze in defense. This, one foolish, innocent mistake by someone who acted rashly without thinking first, could screw up so much of what they had achieved together.\

"_**Shit**_! Why?" His voice was raw, pained and scared like the young seventeen year old he was, that was normally eclipsed by the maturity forced upon him through trials most men didn't have to endure throughout all their lives. Remus stepped close to him, rubbing Harry's neck with strong movements, one of the few people who matched him in stature and height so that when the werewolf hugged him close Harry didn't dwarf the man.

"He's scared." Hermione glared pointedly at Ron. "He thought he was somewhere safe and that he wouldn't be hurt and when he was he got scared. Kiri was attacked and he reacte3d the way he always has when he can't fight; when he thought he was protected; he got himself out of here as fast as he could and didn't look back. He'll be somewhere dark and hidden- underneath the Manor I suspect and he'll be unconscious." Her words caught in her throat, high-pitched hiccups messing up her breathing patterns.

She scrubbed her hands viciously over her eyes, rubbing harshly to stem the crying, and Harry snatched her palms between his, entwining their fingers in support. A couple of deep inhalations, Hermione was ready to continue. "He's different and not just," Brown irises slid to green and a silent exchange passed between them. "Not just talent wise because my little brother isn't a Wizard but he can do things a muggle can't and his- he's got silver-purple hair and his eyes are purple too but it's natural. No colored contacts and Kiri hasn't ever colored his hair before. It's just that that's not the only thing different about his physiology. His heart…"

Ron embraced Hermione comfortingly, regretting the rash actions that had prompted this mess more than ever, and Neville gave her an encourage smile and a pat on the back. "What about your brother's heart, Hermione?"

It all spilled out of her in a rush, pouring out of her mouth with no restraint at all. "His heart is weird because its heart rate doesn't rise at all even when he's sparring. It doesn't lower either, like it's supposed to when you to sleep. It just stays beating the same steady pulse all the time and no adrenaline rushes, nothing, can make it increase except then Kiri will get scared- panic attack, nausea inducing, shock slapping scared- and it spike and it's devastating because that only scares him more so it keeps augmenting unless someone forcibly sedates him but even that doesn't always have positive result. It's a very hit and miss method but at some point it gets too high, beats too fast and thread, and then Kiri passes out. He won't recover for hours."

Ron looked ill, pasty skin and hunched posture denoting how badly he felt about doing this. He hadn't meant to; he had just overreacted. The others appeared just as sick as he did and Harry was sure he was going to throw up soon at the thought of his mate, pale and snarky and unfailingly lovely, curled up somewhere, _**alone**_, and in such a dismal state. Protective instincts raged at him, the desperate need to find his Sub and keep him safe.

He crushed Hermione's delicate fingers, unaware, until she gently extracted them from his grip. When he opened his mouth, apology at the tip of his tongue the witch shook her head sadly and sent him a bleak smile that Harry weakly returned. He jumped off the bar stool, conjuring a long gray sweater; it may have been summer but England was nearing autumn, the weather growing brisk. Wherever Kiri had sent himself, it was sure to not be the warmest of places.

They stared questioningly at him as he pulled on the sweatshirt over his plain white t-shirt and he stared back with determination painted across his handsome, wild face, the edge of the beast inside him crawling the periphery of almost completely lavender eyes.

"I'm going to go find Kiri. Hermione, Siri, Remus? I think you should explain what he means to us so this doesn't happen again." Harry smiled but it was tight, lines of tension at his full lips and the creases in his smooth forehead. Fingers anxiously caressed the smooth silver of the crescent moon pendant. Sirius was by Harry's side, enfolding him in a protective as Hermione clung to Ron. Stepping back, Harry scowled as the pale hands ruffled his ebony hair.

"We'll be waiting to hear your explanation, Potter." Draco drawled, cocking an eyebrow. "In the meantime, I suppose Longbottom and I shall prevent Weasley from doing anything stupid."

Harry barked out a laugh as Ron's ears turned fire truck. Even Hermione giggled reluctantly. "Thanks, Malfoy."

* * *

**There, my lovelies, is Chapter 8! The lyrics in Japanese that I used for this chapter are from a song from an anime called Loveless and the song is called Tsuuki no Curse, so I do not own those either. XD. Please review! Reviews are what compelled me to write again after a year!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Umm...hi? So...I know it's been over a year...or two, I think, I can't exactly remember which...and this is a really short chapter too...so...I'm really very sorry for that andthe only exuse that I can come up with is that at first I was just insanely busy and then I totally forgot I even had a story to continue writing. **

**Yeah.**

**Fail on my part.**

* * *

Chapter 9

Harry paced. Back and forth. Back and forth. Left foot. Right foot. Left foot. Right foot. His mind raced, flying through all the possible situations Kiri might have ended up in.

Dead in a ditch.

Dead in a stream.

Dead in an ocean.

Dead in a forest.

Dead somewhere in the cavernous manor.

Dead back home.

Dead in Japan.

Dead in some back alley in London where he could never be found.

Were you seeing a common theme here?

His bedroom was trashed. Completely, murderously, trashed. Clothes were tossed everywhere into haphazard piles. The drapes of his four-poster bed were torn down, the poles suspending them tangled in the heavy fabric. Glass was shattered on the carpeted floor in big jagged pieces, the remnants of what used to be picture frames. The guts of his school trunk spilled out everywhere. Ink splattered the walls, hard to discern from the dark shade of the paint. Books lay in ruins, pages ripped out and spines broken.

Before leaving to search out Kiri, he'd run upstairs in a mad dash, searching for a specific spell. He didn't know how to find Kiri otherwise, couldn't fathom slogging through the tumultuous cascade of negative emotions that comprised the younger's mental state, this constant litany of -_**fearpainhurtwhereamIwhere'-**_ that was all Harry could extract from his bond with Kiri.

Harry didn't think he had the kind of time that winding his way through it all would take to tell him where Kiri was. Certainly, he didn't think he could bear the thought of leaving him out there, all alone, for any longer than he already had. The problem was that he had flown into his room, turning the contents of it upside down and inside out, only to realize that the journal- _**his mother's journal**_- was missing. Gone. Vanished. Harry would mourn the loss of such a precious object, but later. When he had something even more valuable back in his arms and safe.

Trembling, he sank down the wall, back dragging coarsely along the plaster. His head fell back with a dull thump, the sound muffled and echoing strangely in his ears. Harry thought he might being going into shock as a sense of detached calm overcame him. It lay like a woolen blanket over him, encasing him in it. A pane of glass stood between him and the rest of the world.

Every inhale and exhale was a roaring waterfall in his ears. Harry could barely hear anything over the screaming sound, but eventually became aware of someone calling his name.

"Harry!"

He knew that voice. He was sure he knew that voice.

"Harry! Harry, child, focus! Harry!"

It was…who was it? Harry refocused his eyes, dragged his attention back to the present through the heavy fog wrapped around him, and saw Iara kneeling before him, her long hair bound in a thick plait littered with pristine white roses. A thin beige suit jacked was buttoned over her bright pink camisole and her slacks were immaculately pressed, but the high flush on Iara's cheekbones bespoke a worry and concern that was at odds with her flawless appearance.

"…Iara." Harry looked at her. He spoke and his voice was hoarse, ravaged with fear.

Iara reached out, cupping Harry's cheek in the smooth cradle of her palm. It was the first time Harry had ever seen his mentor outside of his dreamscape, but the meeting was not a happy one. He wasn't even sure why Iara was here, with him, now.

"Harry, what in the heavens has happened? I sensed something was awry; it happens to be one of my powers, but I never imagined I would discover you in such distress."

Harry whined, leaning into the contact briefly before withdrawing completely, pushing off the wall to stand on unsteady feet. It was like getting his equilibrium back after trying to stand on a boat in the depths of a raging storm. Right now, Harry felt like he was the eye of that storm, the calm that you found in the middle of all the chaos.

He sighed, heavy, despairing, and carded his fingers through the wreck that was his hair. Idly, he conjured a hair tie with a murmured 'Accio', teasing the rebellious strands into a high ponytail. "Kiri is missing. He disappeared after Ron attacked him with a cutting curse, which, I get because its war and Ron has never met my Lovely, but really I can't move past the fact that _**my sub is missing**_ now and it's making me want to bloody murder something!" By the time his tirade finished, Harry's chest was heaving, and he was sparking.

Literally.

Angry, small-scale flames were blossoming around him, throwing the handsome lines of his face into a strange, exotic relief, accentuating the shadows that surrounded him. Iara gasped, delicately covering her pink, lipsticked mouth before she brought the crystal wand she always carried down in sharp, severe arc, dousing the flames with a hiss and preventing any real fires from kindling.

Then she twisted it, the ribbed glass catching the stormy grey light outside, and Harry was bound up in a medley of thin chains and rosy, glowing bands of light- Iara's power manifested physically. "Calm down, child." She waited as Harry wrestled with himself, settling deeply into his skin and bones as he breathed meditatively. "I may be equipped help you, but you need to trust me when I tell you that your mother's journal holds no answers for you. The spell you seek won't help, if Kiri cannot even be reached through the Constientizare, if you cannot find him that way."

Harry eyed Iara, suspicion liberally threaded into the weighted glare. "How do you know that? How can you possibly know that Iara? I can't waste any more time, I can't just- _**sit**_ here and wait for him to-to- to regain consciousness or some other bloody thing, I just can't! I feel like I'm losing my mind," he whispered in defeat, "and I am fucking terrified that I'm not going to find him in time."

"You will." Iara promised. "But rushing headfirst won't do you any good."

"Neither," Harry snapped, "will sitting on my arse, doing nothing!"

This could stretch out for hours, if Harry continued on in this manner. Iara waved the wand again, and this time it materialized a sheaf of paper, crumpled with age and covered in bright green ink. Harry knew it in an instant and he grabber the paper out of Iara's hand!

"What the hell, Iara? Why do you have this?"

"Tell me why you need your mother's spell first, child." Iara coaxed. Her voice was soothing, compelling, like the rich amber of honey and the silk of chocolate. "Tell me why you cannot find him on your own."

Harry slammed his fist into the wall, fighting to contain his tears. "The bond's too screwed up right now to help!" he screamed. "It's not doing anything but giving me his crappy emotions and that isn't doing a bloody thing in the way of finding him! My mum was brilliant- everyone's said she is; I've seen the spell in her diary before. It's the only thing I can think of. I can't do it myself…

…I can't find Kiri by myself."

This last admission was torn from Harry wretchedly. The tears finally spilled over and he shuddered, cold like never before.

"Silly boy." Iara chided, smacking him upside the head. She gently pressed the diary page into his much larger hand. "Of course you can. He isn't your mother's, now is he? He's yours." Harry took the page and carefully smoothed out the crumpled edges. He dropped his head to his chest, standing still for a minute, and then he grabbed his mentor in a fierce hug.

"He can be mine all he wants," Harry said, "but it doesn't seem to be doing him any good."

"That's a very negative standpoint."

"It's the only one I'm capable of right now." Harry stated frankly.

Iara smiled at him, secret and mischevious. Her deep blue eyes sparkled. "We'll see about that, child."

An hour had passed since Iara first appeared to Harry in person and he had been working tirelessly in his dreamscape since then trying to sort through everything that the Constientizare was funneling through him. It wasn't just an amalgamation of his submissive's terrified emotions, but a whirlwind of sights and sounds and sensations.

Seriously, it was giving Harry a headache the likes of which only Voldie-Shorts had caused.

To find Kiri, though…that was worth every second of it.

"Are you focused?" Iara probed. She was very quiet when she directed her questions toward Harry, not wanting to disturb him overly much.

"Yes." Harry's mouth hardly moved at all.

"Do you see Kiri?"

"Yes."

"And do you see what surrounds him?"

"A lot of fucking dirt. What the bloody hell did he do, dig a tunnel with the power of his mind?"

A smile quirked Iara's lips. "Unlikely, child, but from what you have told me of your mate…I suppose anything is possible."

"Brilliant."

"Open your eyes for me, Harry." Iara commanded. Harry did and she gasped quietly. She'd never seen such green eyes before. They practically glowed, rimmed in a circle of lavender. Cautiously, the woman moved back a few steps to give her charge space. "You can bring Kiri to you, if you remain focused on the bond between you both. Do not give up the image you have of him now, child, or this shall be a wasted effort and your mate will stay in hiding, alone and frightened. You understand this, yes?"

Harry nodded. His stomach tied itself in knots, the idea that Kiri could stay as he was nauseating him- all he wanted was to save him.

"It's time, then."

A sudden assault of gale winds bombarded the dreamscape and Iara took shelter behind a grove of trees. Over the roar of the wind, she heard a terrified voice calling out and knew, by the tortured reaction of her charge, that it was his submissive partner.

The image of a small, waif thin body was forming in the ground. It's solidity flickered in and out, just briefly, and then started to take definite shape. Silver-violet hair glinted prettily, and a sweet, slack face was turned up to the sky, eyes shut, pink mouth parted.

It seemed Kiri had arrived.


End file.
